See (Too Much)
by GreenFrisbee1
Summary: In one universe, Deku means hope. He stands amongst crowds of heroes and leads humanity into a new era of prosperity. In another branch, Deku means despair. He stands atop of a pile of corpses and leads villains into a new era of crime. In a third branching timeline, Deku means Midoriya Izuku. He sits quietly by the window in his hospital room. And he sees them all.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm a low caffeinated potato who forgot to post this here too. Sue me.**

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 **CHAPTER 1:** **Naomasa Tsukauchi**

It's raining.

The skies are heavy and dark; the rain crashes down from the heavens like a unrelenting force, creating a disjointed symphony of sounds as the water hits the earth.

He tucks his overcoat closer, self conscious of the wet, ragged mess his dark hair had become. In his hurry to get here he'd forgotten to bring something against the rain, and now he was paying for it. Dearly. He's sopping wet and he could feel small lakes forming in his boots, cold seeping into his toes as his socks became soggy and heavy. It's uncomfortable, degrading even; he's dying for a warm cup of coffee right now.

Grunting, Naomasa looks up, squinting stubbornly through the raindrops. The sky is dull and grey, thunder rolling in the distance.

He'd been careless.

 _Should have brought a raincoat._

Walking through the windy downpour was like bullying Toshinori into eat something healthy. His clothes offer him no protection against the howling storm. Naomasa's pretty sure he just saw someone's umbrella fly by, bright pink with little stars and planets designs on it. It felt vindictive of him, but he was happy he wasn't the only one having a bad day.

Fortunately, his destination wasn't far from a train station. He only had to endure another ten minutes under mother nature's windy fury before he stepped into the building, sighing in relief as the warm air from inside the hospital wrapped around him.

Even more aware of his disorderly state, the detective took a moment to shrug off his drenched overcoat and shake it over one of the many carpets, wincing at just how much water dripped from his coat. At least there weren't any people in the lobby to glare at him beyond the receptionist, and she seemed too busy to take note of his presence and chastise him for the mess. Carefully, the tall man folded the cloth over his right arm and placed his hat on top.

Assured he was at least somewhat more presentable, he walked over the counter and offered his badge to the woman at the entrance hall. She startled slightly, looking up with slightly red brown eyes. Recognizing him on the spot, she only glanced at the offered piece of identification before letting him through, moving him along with a slow nod and a flick of her hand.

"He's in his room." The woman tells him softly, her eyes shifting over the computer screen, slightly blurry. There's bags under her eyes and a half-finished cup of coffee held loosely against her chest like it's a precious treasure and she's some dangerous mythical dragon ready to fight to the death to keep it. "Told me to watch. He's already waiting for you."

To any other person, her words would have been cryptic, menacing even.

For Naomasa, they made him shake his head and smile. He's about to leave when she makes a wordless noise.

Turning back to the blond woman, he tilts his head at her questioningly.

"Here," She grunts, reaching next to her computer and lifting the object up to rest on the upper counter, at Naomasa's eye level. It's a cup of coffee, steaming and ready to go, top frotty just like he prefers it. The detective grins and accepts it with a soft thanks.

More sterile white greeted him as he walked up the winding stairs of the hospital and through tall, empty halls. Some doctors and nurses greet him in passing, busy caring for their patient to give him more than a quiet hello. It seems as if the storm outside had crawled into the building, turning the atmosphere cold, tranquil and sleepy.

Naomasa holds his cup in both hands, eyes fluttering as the warm seeps into his cold hands and up his arms. His grip shifts as he reaches his destination, a door tucked at the end of the hallway of the fourth floor. With the hand not carrying his poor doused overcoat and the frothy coffee, he taps on the smooth wood gently.

There's a moment of silence.

Since there were no objections coming from the other side, Naomasa walks in.

(For any other person, this would be rude. For them, it was routine, built upon years of trust.)

The first thing he notes is the empty bed, sheets in disarray. There's a plate of food abandoned on the nightstand, a half-eaten meal of miso soup, left to cool on the side. There's a bouquet of flowers next to the food, the bright yellow daffodils a stark contrast to the pale colors of the room. It's not the only splash of color however. There's a All Might poster hanging over the bed, a pile of colorful books on a shelf and a small stack of hero figurines carefully posed on a cupboard. Most of them were of a familiar blond-haired hero that Naomasa was forced to deal with in a constant basis. The sight made him smile.

The detective's eyes finds his target quickly enough, at the other end of the room. A figure was sitting in front of the window, curled up in a soft chair. Their appearance could only be described as sickly. Thin and gaunt, his limbs seemed almost comically stretched over nonexistent muscle. Dark green hair grew atop of his head, short and curly.

Naomasa takes a moment to watch him; his eyes land on the thin, delicate fingers drumming softly against the pages of a open notebook secured on the boy's lap, right above a wool blanket of a dark orange color. There's doodles on the margin of the paper, and the pages are mostly filled with carefully packed notes written in a code Naomasa couldn't even begin to understand.

"It shouldn't be raining."

It's a mutter Naomasa barely catches.

"It is, though." He says in greeting, gently.

"It shouldn't."

Izuku sounds almost petulant.

"The storm outside says otherwise. As does my coat." _And my everything._

There's a restless sigh. "Not in this one." Naomasa could _hear_ the frown. "At least, that's what I thought. I was going to call you about it so you didn't forget your raincoat, but-" The boy paused, shoulders hunching. With his back to him, the detective could bet his weight in gold that the young teen was pouting. "...I lost track. The stream is splitting too quickly."

Naomasa swallows, what little good humor he'd developed in the presence of his young friend vanishing.

After a few years of visiting the young boy, he'd learned to pick up on the hidden meanings, the twisting wordplay and confusing responses. Izuku had a tendency to ramble over other people and trail off into his own world, saying things that didn't make any sense to the casual observer.

As a detective Naomasa was trained to handle jargon and push through -his Quirk helped a lot with that- but learning Izuku's language had been something else entirely, especially since none of his words ever register as a lie to the officer.

' _The stream is splitting too quickly.'_

It brings forth a certainty apprehension within Naomasa. There was only one reason why Izuku would tell him this. The boy liked to ramble, but he wouldn't say things without it being important.

Something big was going to happen.

"What did you see?" Naomasa asks, slowly walking forward to telegraph his movements. He sits down at the edge of the bed. He takes a sip of his coffee.

"He's teaching at Yuuei this year." Izuku drums his fingers against the windowsill, avoiding the question. The rain continues to hit the window, louder now like a little soothing melody. "Did All Might tell you?"

"...yes. He confided in me about it." Naomasa says a bit too slowly to be smooth, but Izuku disregards it. Instead of pressing the child, he allows the sudden switch in topics. _He hasn't reached a decision yet, but good to know Toshinori will do it._ "About time he settled down. He's gonna have to pick a successor soon."

Izuku twitches at that, a little restrained movement that he barely notice if only from years of knowing the child. The green-haired boy remains quiet, so Naomasa continues:

"I'm guessing this isn't a social meeting, is it?"

"No." Izuku pauses. "I...I want you to be ready." He turns his head to Naomasa, lips pressed thin on a pale freckled face. "All for One will show his hand soon."

Naomasa's hand clenched tighter around the coffee cup. _Shit._ His mind blanked out, with only that word repeating itself over and over.

Out of everything, he wasn't expecting that.

He briefly considered calling Toshinori right here and now, but one look at the young teenager had him pause. It's been years since Toshinori was aided by Izuku, not that the hero knew. As far as the man was aware, the tip that had spared him from a grievous wound during his fight with All for One was anonymous, and Naomasa wanted to keep it that way, at least for now.

Truthfully, he actually made it so Toshinori never knew about the boy, no matter how many 'anonymous' tips he received that helped prevent casualties during villain fights and natural disasters. It wasn't selfish per say, but more of Izuku's own wish to remain in the background. The boy had all but demanded this of him, and there was little he could deny the child after everything he was giving him. Naomasa learned to not prod into this; he'd given up trying to introduce the two of them years ago.

Izuku would tell him the truth one day.

Naomasa could afford to be patient.

Until then, Izuku relayed what he saw to Naomasa, who relayed it to the proper channels depending on the information. His warnings for natural disasters had saved thousands. Evacuating afflicted areas had become more and more easier with hours if not days of warning. Villains were struck down more easily with his insight, though there were always more to take the place of the ones the heroes put behind bar.

It was more difficult for Izuku to do this, though. Villain prophecies were rarer, pickier. Izuku once mentioned to him that it was due to how easily things changed. Even the smallest of events could change the actions of individuals, and it was hard to keep track of everything.

There was a difference however between the common villains and the man that nearly brought Japan to its knees at the beginning of the Quirk era. Naomasa contemplated buying himself a bottle of whisky on his way home; it would certainly do wonders for his nerves.

"Do you know where their base of operation is?"

There's a hum. "Not yet. There's many places for him and his accomplices to hide." He chews on his left cheek, expression determined. Naomasa frowns at the bad habit. "I'll have a location down soon. Give a take a few months." His eyes narrow dangerously. Naomasa takes a moment to examine them. Izuku had always been self conscious of their strangeness, so he rarely had the opportunity to take a good look at them.

Only the corneas had been left untouched by his Quirk, with only a smidge of green at the edges of his irises. Instead of pupils and normal irises, there were swirling fractal patterns stretching out from the middle of his eyes, thousands of shades of blue and white mingling together in a awe-inspiring display. The middle where his pupils used to be was paler, whiter, and shrunk and grew depending on Izuku's mental state. Right now these pseudo pupils were large, marking that the boy was looking at Naomasa, and not through him.

Midoriya Inko, Izuku's mother, had called this aspect of her son's Quirk as beautiful, though he was starting to think it was a way for her to cope with what her child ended up becoming. Internally, Naomasa shared Izuku's dislike of them, though to a lesser degree. They were a physical reminder of how Izuku couldn't turn his Quirk quite off, and it was always there at the back of his head, feeding him a constant stream of information of varying degrees of importance that Izuku couldn't quite stop.

Sometimes, Naomasa wonders what Midoriya sees. Even Nighteye's _Foresight_ paled compared to the sheer power of _Omniscience_.

Unlike _Foresight_ however, Izuku couldn't deactivate his Quirk.

Izuku's physical growth was greatly stunted as a result, his body unable to keep up with the demand of his Quirk. He would not much grow taller than his current height according to his personal doctor. After all this time spent watching the child in front of him waste away, a part of Naomasa believed this Quirk was more of a horrible curse than anything else, no matter how many lives it saved.

Instead of voicing those thoughts out, Naomasa took the political approach and politely drank his coffee. There was only half a cup left now. "Anything else you wish to tell me?"

"Unfortunately, not much." Izuku turns his attention to the notebook in his lap. Naomasa watches silently as he turns a few pages, and rips three of them out with practiced ease. "Here." The boy extended his hand, and the detective took it gently from a small hand. "...these are the most possible villain events for this month." He ducked his head forward, green curls falling over his luminous eyes. "I don't have anything else. Sorry to drag you out into the rain. This was your day off." Izuku apologized.

"It's no worry." Naomasa completely ignored the fact he never shared his schedule with the teen. "And you did the right thing, Izuku. I told you long ago that if something related to All for One or All Might pops up, you can't use the phone to tell me. It's not safe."

Setting his coffee aside, Naomasa took a good look at the note-filled pages, examining the names listed, the locations and the crimes. The dates were there too, all of the different information organized in neat little rows. No space was wasted.

Izuku had always been quite the perfectionist.

"You did well." Naomasa praises. There's no answer.

When he looks up sharply, his stomach drops. It was as expected. The boy's expression had blanked out, blue fractals spinning within his once green eyes. The white spots that passed as pupils had shrunk to tiny needle-thin points. His expression was soft, almost as if he was sleeping.

The eyes said otherwise.

(Izuku had once described this, to him. _Like trying to keep my head out of flood water,_ the boy told him when he was eight, too small and fragile in his hospital bed. _I try to keep track of everything but there's just too much. I keep getting swept away, and I have to struggle to latch onto the rocks. To hold on and remember._ )

Naosama's shoulders hunched, his dark eyes closing for a moment in designation.

He moved from the bed, setting the paper folded next to his coffee cup on the stand and leaving his coat aside. Naomasa was gentle as he took the notebook from the unresponding teen and set it on the nearby drawer, next to the figurines. He grabbed the orange blanket on Izuku's lap and pulled it up, wrapping it around the child's shoulders.

Stepping away, he admired his work for a moment. Izuku gazed right past him, unseeing. The fractals were spinning inside his eyes, faster now. It looked like a blue vortex.

The detective didn't try to speak to him, rather reaching to pick up his things. He'd seen the spaced out look before, one too many times. There was no use talking to someone that wasn't there.

And yet-

He turns to the boy who'd done so much without recognition, and bowed.

"It's been good seeing you again, Midoriya. Thank you."

It couldn't hurt.


	2. Chapter 2

**Backstory time!**

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 **Chapter 2: Bakugo Katsuki**

Bakugo Katsuki was four when he learns that not all men were created equal.

He comes to this universal truth when he uses his Quirk for the first time. His fellow students and his teachers coo at the little puffs and fizzles that come out of his palms, all but falling over themselves in their attempts at showering him with praise. And Katsuki takes it all, because he damn well deserves it.

With this Quirk, he was going to surpass All Might, it was just a matter of time.

Believe it.

Izuku cheers at his side, pressing close and running his fingers on his palms while babbling excitedly about the properties of his Quirk and biology and other things Katsuki cannot bother to remember, but he listens half heartedly while nodding along. Raised together, he'd long since accepted the smaller boy's rambling habit so instead of pushing him away like the other extras, he carefully grabs his wandering fingers with his non active hand to keep the brat from burning his fingertips.

The other boy was a rascal half the time, drawing attention from the rowdier children and forcing Katsuki to spend most of their free time making sure he didn't have to explain to Auntie Inko why Izuku was coming home with scrapes and bruises. She was smaller than his mother and looked like a breeze could blow her over, but Katsuki knew better from the last time his mother had dragged him to the Midoriya residency to apologize after he fought Izuku on some topic he couldn't even remember by the time he's standing in front of the green-haired woman, stuttering a apology through gritted teeth.

Auntie Inko was terrifying. That was just another fact of life. Not in the same way as Mitsuki, though. With her soft appearance and wide green eyes she shared with her offspring, she had a knack for making you feel disappointed about yourself.

It's not a feeling Katsuki likes.

He hated people looking down on him, but he despised even more feeling like a failure.

So if he made sure Izuku wouldn't end up walking into traffic while reading the latest All Might comic, who cared? Katsuki definitively didn't. He just wanted Auntie Inko to stop looking at him like that, goddamnit.

Izuku's Quirk, Katsuki decides, would be just as much trouble as the green-haired brat. If it wasn't useless outright, like most of the Quirks his classmates possesed.

He's not wrong on the first part, and entirely off with his second belief. Katsuki is four and a half when his friend's Quirk finally, blessedly decides to show up-

-and it's fucking _awesome_.

"Do it again, Deku!" He commands like a general to his soldier, and the smaller boy giggles. There's tiny shades of luminous blue sparkling within the depths of his pupils, giving a far away, ethereal look to his face.

(Katsuki didn't hate the color blue then.)

Izuku purses his lips, tilting his head to the side. His friend waits impatiently as the boy seemingly squints at something only he can see. Then after a few seconds of nodding at empty air, Izuku opens his mouth.

"T-that boy, over there!" The green-haired child points at a older kid in their class, who's yelling at another boy. He's holding a juice bottle out of the second's reach. "He's gonna trip. Watch."

And Katsuki does so avidly, resting his chin on a fluffy mop of green hair.

It takes less than five seconds for the prediction to become true. Caught up arguing with his friend, the boy doesn't notice the particularly large pebble until he steps back on it. Balance lost, he slips and falls, spilling his juice across the playground floor. They both start crying.

Katsuki roars with laughter.

"I should have warned him." Izuku pouts.

"Fuck that, this is funnier!"

His friend turns away, but Katsuki still saw the upward slant of his lips.

When Izuku's Quirk first manifested, Katsuki was man enough to admit he was jealous. Because how cool was a Quirk that allowed the user to know what's going to happen next, to read the future on a whim? No villain could match a hero with the ability to see their next move before they even thought about it!

If anything, it reminded him of Sir Nighteye. And what a thought that was, that Deku had a Quirk like All Might's sidekick. It might as well be written in the stars that the boy would be Katsuki's sidekick, no matter what Deku decided to say.

This way of thinking mellowed however when he realized that despite how wonderful Izuku's Quirk turned out to be, it was also a passive Quirk. Physically, he was as helpless as the day they first met, when Inko settled him next to Katsuki on the living room carpet to play together while she chatted with his mother over tea. Which meant no fighting villains, no matter what the steamed broccoli thought.

"I can learn to fight! There's plenty of pro-heroes who don't have offensive Quirks but still can kick ass!"

"Like hell," Katsuki had sneered back, palms smoking. "You're just going to get your ass killed!" Izuku continues to smack back, and their argument quickly devolves into shouting and punching from both sides until the teacher had to step in.

Katsuki hadn't cared what Izuku thought, back then. In his young mindset, the path was already written in stone; his friend at his back, keeping him informed, keeping him ten steps ahead of the situation, and the villains cowering at his feet as Katsuki rained down terror upon the battlefield.

Yeah, that would work.

 **.**

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 **.**

At least, that had been the plan.

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Katsuki's five when he truly understands that not all men were created equal.

It starts slowly.

At first, nobody takes notice because Izuku is a naturally air headed child, too caught up in his own thoughts to pay attention. He's clumsy by nature, too shy and lacking the self confidence to make it through the day without second guessing every single one of his actions and ending up tripping over his own shoes. At least Katsuki couldn't be blamed for that.

One would think that with a powerful future sight Quirk, he would be able to go through his day without ending up hurting himself, but Deku apparently was born to prove the world wrong.

Sometimes though, it takes just too many times calling his name to make him look around. Too many times to count had Katsuki needed to jab his side with a finger to get his attention. Repeatedly. And Izuku would blink and turn to him, the last traces of the shimmering blue that marked his Quirk activating dissipating when their eyes met.

(If he knew then, he would have memorized how green Izuku's natural eyes were. But he had been a foolish child, too caught up in his own superiority to notice until it was too late.)

The first time it happens, it lasts a whole minute.

"-and with the sudden appearance of Quirks and a rising number of people who couldn't conform to their laws, Japan initially applied a…."

Silence.

"Izuku?"

Izuku was reciting a passage of their textbook at their teacher's behest when he'd, for a lack of a better word, blanked out mid-sentence, pupils lighting up with blue. There's a moment of silence, then the teacher calls on him again.

"Izuku? Is something wrong?"

No answer.

"Oi! Deku!" By then Katsuki's darting out of his seat to yank on the brat's collar. Izuku's body tilts at the touch, head lolling. Fractal patterns swirl within his pupils, bigger and brighter than the previous times he'd used his Quirk.

He's completely unresponsive. Panic breaks out across the classroom.

Katsuki was scared then, but he'd refused let it show. Not for Izuku, who was staring off into space wide eyed and _not there_ , not for the other students who are crying around them, not for the teacher either, who was trying to hold on the reigns of the small class as it dissolves into panic while trying to call for help.

Instead, Katsuki choked down the fear because that's what heroes do. That's what All Might does and he had to stay calm, and terrified as he was. He reached out, grabbing Izuku by the frilly blue top of his tunic and pulling him close. The smaller toddler doesn't respond to the sudden shove -his eyes just stare past Katsuki like he isn't there, blue pulsing in the middle of his eyes.

Something inside him breaks.

"Deku!" He snaps, shaking him. Then he has to catch him as the boy practically falls over on top of Katsuki, limper than a doll. "Wake up, shitstain!"

Nothing.

Just spinning blue that makes Katsuki's stomach roll.

By the time the nurse rushes through the door, Izuku's jerking up in Katsuki's arms, choking on nothing and limbs flailing as he struggles to get air back in his body. His green eyes spin in their sockets, wild and terrified. They finally locked onto Katsuki's red ones, and he starts openly sobbing.

"K-Kacchan..." The green-haired boy cries.

Katsuki knows tears. He'd seen Izuku cry before. A lot. The smaller boy cried over the slightest things, and it was always a hassle to get him to calm down. There was a difference between then and now, though. These tears were desperate, terrified. These were the tears of someone who'd seen things and were hopelessly looking for comfort.

The blond paused. He wanted to yell at him, wanted to punch him in the goddamn for making him feel so scared, wanted to hold him close to the point of choking the damn bastard to make sure he didn't slip away again. He never did any of those, instead carefully looping a arm around his waist and pulling him up, making soft noises in an attempt to comfort him.

"It's okay, shitty Deku. I'm here."

 **.**

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It's the first time, and it's not the last.

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A month later Izuku slips again. It barely lasts thirty minutes.

Katsuki spent them laying at the feet of his bed, trying not to burn a hole in the cheap fabric.

He stared at the abandoned video game, watching the characters die on screen without the lack of player interference to keep them moving. The controls have been thrown to the ground, forgotten. From one moment to the next, surpassing the score on screen went from his greatest goal to one of the most meaningless thing Katsuki had ever seen.

Izuku wakes up at the end of those thirty minutes, bleary-eyed and expression haunted. Katsuki doesn't ask. Instead, he wordlessly goes downstairs to tell Auntie Inko to make two hot cups of chocolate for them.

 **.**

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 **.**

Three weeks later, it lasts a entire hour.

Katsuki spends them curled up around Izuku at the kindergarten, shaking, palms smoking and crackling to ward off the other boys. He refuses the teachers' help, snarling at their approach as his Quirk flares, betraying his distress. Izuku doesn't even react, his face nestled into his neck.

His eyes stare off into the void like those of a blind man. The blue had eaten the entirety of his pupils. Brilliant fractal patterns spread across green like a invader, blooming swirls of color that wouldn't stop growing.

Katsuki wonders what he sees.

He thinks he's better off not knowing.

 **.**

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 **.**

"His Quirk is activating on its own." The doctor tells Inko while Izuku sat on her lap, head resting on her chest. Blue fractals swirled within his eyes, stretching over green. Three hours had passed since the Quirk had taken over.

Her lower lip trembles when she asks.

"How do we stop it?"

The doctor purses his lips, expression tight. His eyes drift to the toddler curled up in Inko's protective embrace. One shaky hand rests on a nest of messy curls, petting them gently. She is holding onto him tightly, as if attempting to shield him from the dangers the world had to offer.

"I don't know."

(How could she protect her son from himself?)

 **.**

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A full month after the second incident, at barely five and a half years of age, Izuku slips under for ten whole hours.

He was atop a flight of stairs at the time.

Katsuki's not there when it happens -he should have he should have _he should be there to protect him-_ but he's alerted to it when he reaches his home and finds his mother and father waiting for him. Inko, according to his mother's trembling voice, had transferred Izuku to a hospital after he cracked his head at the bottom of a staircase. He's out the door before she can even finish.

His father lags behind them when they reach the hospital, his gentle nature unable to match his wife and his son's righteous fury as they all but bash their way through the hospital staff and swarm one Midoriya Inko, who was sobbing as she sat outside the operation room.

Katsuki watches as his mother, dark-eyed and vulnerable, all but sweeps the smaller woman up in her arms, nearly picking her best friend off the ground. Inko cries into her shoulder, loud and open and painful in a way that rattles something deep within the blond boy. He steps close and puts his right hand on her back, pressing just enough that the grieving woman knows that he's here. She doesn't react to his presence, merely sobbing harder.

Then a doctor steps out of the surgery room, white coat peppered in red. Katsuki watches him with narrowed eyes as he speaks to his parents and his aunt. He couldn't understand what they were saying, but he catches a few words.

 _Cranial fracture._

 _Internal bleeding._

 _Possible brain damage._

Later, he sits next to his friend's lax form and holds his limp hand tightly. Izuku looks too tiny on the hospital bed, his hair shaved to make space to the massive bandages wrapped around his skull.

His eyes are open though.

Wide, unseeing.

Blue.

Katsuki spends the remaining four hours quietly talking to him, trying to coax the green-haired boy out of his trance. Izuku continues to stare resolutely at the ceiling, fractal-infested eyes spinning lazily in their sockets.

 **.**

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When he comes out of the hospital, Izuku doesn't return to school.

It's impossible to participate in the classroom when he keeps slipping more and more often. The teacher can't keep a eye on him at all times, and the normal classroom schedule did not work with Izuku anymore now that his awareness slipped constantly, his Quirk spiralling out of control no matter how many times he tried reeling it in.

 _Omniscience_ was a passive Quirk, constantly there, constantly _mocking_ them with the spread of blue across Izuku's emerald eyes.

Katsuki's routine changes from then on; the moment he finishes school, he most often than not finds himself at his childhood friend's house, helping him study now that he was unable to go to class anymore. What little friends Katsuki managed to make complained about it, but it's not like he cared. They were useless extras that got in his way, pestering him non stop for his time.

Their Quirks were so not made for heroics, no matter how much they complained or Izuku reprimanded him with _Kacchan, not everyone has a perfect Quirk like you. Give them a chance._

Perfect Quirks.

Ha.

Says the boy who's Quirk was slowly stripping him of his autonomy.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Bakugo is six and he can only watch as his friend's Quirk rots him from the inside. The green of Izuku's eyes fades of a teal blue, glazed and distant; the moments of awareness become farther and farther away. Blue takes over, spinning fractals grating at Katsuki's sanity and making him want to scream and claw and tear at something.

It hurts, to see the other boy like this. Quirks were supposed to be awesome, they were supposed to make heroes out of people. They were things of greatness.

But what was great about this?

What was fair?

And the incidents -they just keep piling up.

He doesn't fall down the stairs again -his mother or whomever is available shadow him each time he's near any stairways, sticking close no matter how much of a daily hassle it was. Izuku takes it with restrain, his shoulder dropping in a defeated slump each time Katsuki leads him up or down the stairs of the house. Despite what many thought, Izuku was prideful in his own way; he didn't have Katsuki arrogance -which was well earned in his opinion- but he had a quiet defiance and determination that was his own.

"I can do this one my own," He mutters through gritted teeth as Katsuki hovers over his shoulder, red eyes narrowed into a squint as he watches the other boy attempt to arrange the upper shelves filled with collectibles while standing precariously on his chair. "I'm not made of glass, Kacchan."

 _You might as well be_ , the blond thinks, though he doesn't voice it out loud. "I'm just making sure." He says instead, for because despite his sickly state, Izuku shared his mother's mythical ability to make Katsuki feel like the worst person on the face of the earth with just a disappointed glance.

Fuck him if that wasn't a Quirk in its own right.

However, after stopping in the middle of the road and subsequently nearly being crushed under a speeding truck, Izuku was admitted into a hospital ward for permanent residents.

He takes it solemnly, like he knew it was coming. The bastard probably did know about it before the idea ever formed in Inko's head.

On his side, Katsuki accepts it with his usual grace.

And by that, he meant breaking down his bedroom door and trashing half his room before Mitsuki manages to get him under control again. Never let it be said that Katsuki handled things like a mature person. It wasn't his best moment.

(Fuck that though, what right did the nerd have to leave?)

"I'm not going anywhere." Izuku tells him as they arrange his personal belongings in a few boxes. "I'll still be in the city. I won't just disappear, Kacchan."

It wasn't all of his things that went with him to the hospital -a good two thirds stayed here with Inko, for when she would pick up her son from the ward when she had whole days off to spend with him.

"I know." Katsuki replied, grinding his teeth as he clutched one of Izuku's All Might figurines almost to the point of breaking it. "It's just...urgh, I can't even say it!" He snarls, shoving the collectible into one of the boxes. He plants his hands on the edge of the cardboard box, breathing ragged. "It's-"

The words stick to the top of his mouth like tar. Katsuki wants to scream in frustration.

"...not fair?" Izuku murmurs at his side. He feels the green-haired boy's hand rest in between his tense shoulders. His warmth seeped into the corded muscles, and Katsuki allowed himself to breathe. "I know. Trust me, I know."

 _Of course he does, the nerd. He sees too much,_ Katsuki reminds himself as Izuku walks past him to raid the closet. _Of all Quirks, why this one? Couldn't you have gotten telekinesis like Auntie Inko, or your shitty father's firebreath?_

(At this point, he'll take no Quirk over this.)

One thing was now sure though.

Unless something drastic happened, Izuku could never be a hero.

His Quirk kept him from that -and what an irony it was, that the power that should have carried him forward was now tying him down. Omniscience was just too unstable for proper hero work, and the state it left the smaller boy when it just became too much to handle. It would be suicidal to bring him to a battlefield. A person who was in the constant risk of dropping into a coma without warning would only be a hindrance in the field.

Despite knowing this, Katsuki only felt a conviction bloom within him, a promise that settled deep into his soul like a brand. It doesn't matter if Izuku couldn't achieve his dreams.

Katsuki was going to be a hero for the both of them.

(Of course, Izuku found a way to derail that, too.)

* * *

 **This Katsuki will be slightly different from the canon version -I was going to write him normally, as in him ignoring Izuku entirely, but then I started to think what the better alternative was. What would be more fun to write. Izuku's Quirk is traumatizing for the both of them; some of Katsuki's philosophies in canon wouldn't hold up around this version of Izuku, where his own Quirk is holding him back in life. So Katsuki is there during the progression of Izuku's Quirk, and he sees firsthand what it causes.**

 **He's still going to be a little shit tho, just not to Izuku. Most of the time. Let's be fair, Izuku knows how to push his buttons. A version of him that knows everything in advance? Rip Katsuki's sanity. He gonna kill the self-sacrificing nerd.**

 **How to better explain it? Oh, right.**

 **Izuku: *Knows about the thing, should be careful since he knows about the thing***

 **Katsuki: DON'T do whatever you are thinking of doing. You can just tell me and I will take care of-**

 **Izuku: *Does the thing anyways***

 **Katsuki: *Insert angry explosions with a side of mental breakdown***


	3. Chapter 3

**Weeee, here's another!**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 3: Midoriya Izuku**

Midoriya Izuku is well aware of how he's perceived by those around him.

 _Such a sweet, polite little boy._

 _He's so well behaved for his age, Miss Midoriya!_

 _He's quiet, isn't he?_

 _Izuku, you should smile more._

 _Have you thought about getting him some glasses? His eyes-_

 _Don't talk to that kid._

 _He's so thin._

 _Poor thing._

 _What a tragedy._

To each and every one of them Izuku had smiled politely, all while _Omniscience_ burned at the back of his eye sockets like a angry bee. Telling him what they would say next, what they would do, what they really thought of him-

Because the real horror of Omniscience was never how he lost hours, days of his life. It was knowing so many things, having knowledge and sensations and _feelings_ not his own be shoved into his head like searing, white hot metal being pressed into his brain.

(The truth of the matter was, terrible things splintered the timeline far deeper than choosing a different type of cereal in the morning.)

This was, unfortunately, the hand the world had dealt him, and the only thing he could do was keep moving forward and make the most of it. Like he'd told Kacchan long ago: not everyone had the perfect Quirk. The best thing those people could do was try to maximize any positive their powers brought to their lives and the lives of those around them.

And while _Omniscience_ had a very fat, very long list of downsides, Izuku learned how to wield it. To make use of the building pressure in his skull, of the knowledge that threatened to make his eyes burst out of his sockets and make him go mad.

Through the years, he learned to channel his pain into something useful. Becoming a hero was but a fantasy given his condition -and oh, how his heart had _ached_ when he realized how the very ability that should have helped him become the Number One hero was robbing him of his dream- but Izuku didn't just kneel over. He'd refused to spend his life alone in a hospital room as his Quirk slowly ate away at him.

(He'd seen too much just to stay in the sidelines and do nothing.)

Instead he got Naomasa on board and through the detective as a shield, he made a network to send his visions to those who needed it. _Omniscience_ had robbed him of a fruitful life but it had saved the lives of hundreds by warning him of impending natural disasters days before they occured, and through his visions, many villains ended up behind bars.

From his tiny hospital room in the middle of nowhere, he was helping people across Japan. Saving them. It was a nice feeling.

Though despite everything he'd accomplished, no amount of training kept his Quirk from going out of control. Izuku had spent enough time during his younger years desperately trying reign it in to no avail. His power was just too wild, too erratic.

Too dangerous, for himself and the people around him.

(When he'd frozen in the middle of the road, eyes wide and staring off into the distance, it was Inko who pushed him out of the way of the speeding truck. She nearly got hit herself.

Izuku never really forgave himself for what could have happened.)

Those were the same words his mother told the teachers when he'd gone to school for the last time to bring his things home. Even at fourteen years old he could still remember the way the school director's eyes softened with sympathy as his mother explained why he would be homeschooled from then on. The pity in her gaze as she turned to look at him.

Izuku learned what shame was, then.

The day he left school, Izuku had no friends to say goodbye to. His Quirk had always creeped the other children out and combined with his known friendship with walking talking timebomb Bakugo Katsuki, he'd been isolated from the rest of the children.

It didn't bother Izuku was much as it should. It was better this way; too much of his time was taken away by his slips to have friends.

Plus, Kacchan with all of his eccentricities was more than enough.

Thinking of the blond made Izuku's lips twitch. He glances at his nightstand, where fresh daffodils lay in a glass vase, the bright yellow of their delicate petals drawing his attention. They were very pretty; hopefully this time he would be able to keep his friend's gift alive for more than a few days.

The whole flower thing started years ago on a accident. Kacchan wasn't the type of person to bring any kind of get well gift beyond a snarled reprimand and a smack over the head when Izuku's illness allowed it. Auntie Mitsuki on the other hand could pass as a reasonably well-mannered human and after his incident with the stairs, she brought Izuku a few flower arrangements during his recovery.

Kacchan had found them ridiculous. During his visits he would poke at the flowers, sneering at the plants as if they had personally offended him. His complains flew right over Izuku, who didn't think much of it beyond Kacchan being Kacchan. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for him to do it in front of his mother.

That's when disaster struck.

A passive-aggressive comment told in passing by Mitsuki was all that was needed for the equivalent of World War Three to occur between mother and son. Soon enough Izuku saw bigger and more extravagant flower arrangements be sent to his room.

It got to the point his bedroom smelled more like a greenhouse than a hospital room.

Izuku didn't mind it as much as his mother did; the flowers overpowered the smell of antiseptic, and the bright, eye-catching colors helped drown out the steady drip of information _Omniscience_ forced on him. Not that he ever told that to Kacchan, because the taller boy would have taken it as a personal challenge and made his room look like a rainbow dropped down from the sky to grace every available inch of his bedroom.

The flower madness went on for a entire week and would have continued if an exasperated Inko hadn't pulled Mitsuki and Kacchan aside for a stern talking to that left Izuku's best friend skulking for a week.

While the war ended, Kacchan kept up buying flowers for Izuku. Just as a big fuck you to the old lady. Kacchan's own words, not his. Inko didn't like Izuku cursing. She barely tolerated Katsuki's potty mouth as it was and that was mostly due to the fact she -and everyone in the vicinity, including the doctors- thought that his foul mouth was a hereditary trait.

Izuku had to agree.

He leaned back into his chair, folding his legs tighter under the orange blanket Kacchan had gifted him during the first winter he spent in the hospital. His newest list of villain events was laid on his lap, tiny notes piling on the margin of his notebook as his chart slowly filled up.

 _Omniscience_ buzzed at the back of his eye sockets, making his eyes tingle as if there was a particularly agitated bee struggling to crawl out from behind his eyes. Izuku eyed his bottle of painkillers on the nightstand, debating getting up from his cocoon of warmth to fetch a pill or two.

He finally decided against it, turning to focus his attention on the last few names he remembered from his latest slip. He couldn't afford to be medicated, not today.

Izuku had places to be.

 _Which reminds me._

Closing his notebook, the young teenager languidly uncurls from his chair, once on his feet, he stretches like a disgruntled cat with a prolonged groan, grimacing internally at the way his joints creaked with the motion. Despite physical therapy and a good diet, his body had yet to meet any definition of healthy and give him the few inches in height he was sorely missing to look his age.

Setting the book on his cupboard, Izuku opens one of the drawers and pulls the pile of clothes in it back to expose two more notebooks tucked underneath. He folds the third with them and tucks the clothes back over it.

With that done, Izuku walks over to his small closet and puts on some running shoes. He glances at the door, frowning pensively at the clock.

 _4:05_

Not much longer now.

He should get moving if he didn't want to be late.

( _Omniscience_ made it so Izuku was aware at all times of his location in the timelines, but it was difficult to gauge the time in human terms. The universe was so much bigger than people thought it was, and time was no exception.)

Tossing a hoodie on, Izuku made a final tally of his clothes to make sure he was dressed for the weather. Getting a cold was the last thing he wanted; given his frail health, it would lead to complications.

He still remembered the last time he got a cold. Between _Omniscience_ burning the back of his eyes, threatening to pop them out of his skull from the pressure and the nasty build up of snot clogging his nose, Izuku had been unable to even move from his bed.

He'd spent two weeks fighting for his life, his underdeveloped body struggling to keep up with both his Quirk's needs and fighting off the illness. At some point during those two hellish weeks, his doctors were certain that his body would give up under the strain. Not the nicest vote of confidence, but they were realistic.

(And Izuku had seen that in some instance, he didn't make it.)

Still, he managed to make it through the harrowing experience. Kacchan had been breathing out smoke by the end of it and his poor mother had dry eyes from all the crying.

Which meant that if he got sick now, Inko wouldn't let him see the end of it. Kacchan might even chain him to the bed and never let him outside ever again.

(The blond would probably do just that once he caught wind of what he was about to do. He might as well accept his future incarceration.)

Izuku fights back the twinge of shame as he walks out of his room. There's no need to check the hallway -he knows there was no doctors or nurses in sight. For all the security they boasted to Inko, it was ridiculously easy to leave the hospital.

His Quirk might have something to do with it, but that was a detail.

A tiny detail.

Totally insignificant.

Izuku not so gently taps on one of the doors on his floor level, fighting back a grimace as a furious screech comes from the other side. Mr. Yon hated being disturbed and with his conflict with his rowdy neighbor, Miss Agata, any interruption to his daily painting session was considered as a declaration of war from the short, portly woman.

And to think it all began because he stole her pudding. Internally, Izuku was glad he wasn't forced to interact with the other residents of the ward. Most of the patients were several times older than him.

While the 80-year old screeching up a storm, the young boy scurries away before the nurses came, attracted to the commotion like sharks to blood in the water.

There's a alcove up ahead, right before the hallway twisted and led to a common room and most importantly, a emergency exit door. Instead of going directly for the door though, he slows down as he reaches the alcove and goes for the couple of chairs and the small, worn little coffee table tucked at the back.

Izuku bends towards the catalogs, picking up the closest and laying back in one of the rigid plastic chair. Landscaping. Sweet. He'd always enjoyed reading about different kinds of flowers. This was much better than the golf magazines. Those were just boring, and made him go to sleep faster than any medication the hospital had on hand.

Footsteps rush past him, making him grin behind his catalog.

The nurse runs past his alcove without seeing him, too caught up in trying to reach the rampaging Mr. Yon's room to care about the small patient calmly sifting through magazines. It would have taken but a glance for him to notice that the boy was in fact, a runaway patient, but he was too distracted by the long, frustrating day he'd had spent tending to coma patients.

Izuku knew.

He patiently waits until the sound of the running man die off before he smiles and tosses the catalog over his shoulder. With the last stretch of the hospital cleared, he leaves the alcove behind and ambles towards the back door. There's a panel next to the locked gate, installed to keep the less stable patients from taking a stroll outside.

This one, he knows a few combinations. A few taps of his fingers, it chirps positively and the door swings open for Izuku.

Sometimes, _Omniscience's_ knack for forcefully shoving completely useless information into his brain payed off.

Quickly but quietly, he makes his way to the bottom of the stairs and walked over to the exit door, the last thing keeping him from going outside into the cool afternoon air. There was a panel on the brick wall next to it, old and worn, displaying a number pad and a small window.

Izuku stares at the panel for a moment, squinting.

For this one, no series of numbers come immediately to mind.

Which means, Izuku was going to need to reach for the information he wanted.

 _Omniscience_ buzzes to life, making the fractal pattern in his eyes spin wildly as it revs up. Knowledge crashes into Izuku's skull like a river bursting through a small, barely controlled dam, quickly filling his head with stray bits of information. If he had been aware of the stream before, now it had painfully forced its way to the front of his mind.

Izuku can't fight back the grimace even if he tried. Stupid. He really should have bought painkillers with him.

Izuku squeezed his eyes hard and relaxed his shoulders, focusing on his breathing as to stave off the black spots in his vision. His Quirk had always been a loose cannon; in his early years he'd been able to steer it to the things around him, which he'd taken advantage of gleefully. But as time passed and his Quirk matured? This meager control slipped out of his fingers and vanished into the night, replaced by more and more slips that costed him hours if not days of his life.

Trying to make _Omniscience_ do anything was like trying to wrangle a rabid bull with your bare hands. At least he'd only recently slipped under, giving him some room to breathe. There's no risk of him kneeling over in the middle of the street.

Over the years, Izuku had become quite knowledgeable on what asphalt tasted like.

It takes him a full ten seconds of standing there in the semi darkness to grasp a string of numbers from the river; quickly, he enters it into the panel.

It chirps gleefully. The lock clicks and he pulls the door open.

Bingo.

Air rushes past him, the cool afternoon breeze ruffling his green hair. Izuku shivers as he tucks himself deeper into his clothes like a turtle, pulling the hood over his head as he steps outside. It was chilly, but not too chilly. The dark storm from three days ago had passed and the sky was a dark sapphire blue. Cars honked in the distance.

As he walks out of the hospital, gently sliding the metal door closed behind him, Izuku catches a stray metallic glint above him. He immediately ducks his head, not wanting to attract attention in case someone was watching from the camera.

Briefly, the young teenager considered offering the camera a tiny, lopsided grin; just for added effect. It's not like he goes out often with his condition, he should make the most of it.

It's a childish idea that he dismisses quickly, though. It wouldn't do any good if they found out how he left the hospital. They'll probably change the locks and use id cards instead, knowing how zealous the director of the hospital was about safety.

(Ids wouldn't work against him either. It was only a matter of time before someone forgot their card somewhere and Izuku would ferret out that little bit of knowledge from the tangled mess in his head long before the new system was finished being installed.)

Yeah, he was going to be in so much trouble when he came back.

Hesitation trickles in. Maybe this wasn't the correct course. Maybe he wouldn't be there. There was a small percentage, as small as it was, that he would get distracted and Izuku would have wasted this outing.

 _Omniscience_ rises up again, burning at the back of his eyes as it pressed strands of knowledge into his brain. Images that Izuku saw again and again during his slips, too constant -too important for him to brush off. There was no way around this.

His hands were shaking, but Izuku straightened his spine and took a deep breath to even his nerves.

He couldn't be weak, not now.

He had someone very important to meet.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4: Yagi Toshinori**

* * *

 _What a shame,_ he thinks as he looks over Dagobah beach, observing with somber eyes at the tragic mess dumping had turned the coast into. It had gotten much worse since his last visit.

The years had not been kind to the municipal beach.

Old, rusted appliances were stacked high on the once sparkly clean sand; bags of trash, busted tires and kitchen apparatus piled together to form pyramids of rusty metal, sun-bleached plastic and broken glass. Toshinori was pretty sure he saw a car or two buried under the debris.

 _I should clean it._ He thinks as he peers at the horizon, gauging from the bench he was sitting on just how far the dumping site stretched.

That idea had merit. It _would_ be a good gesture for the community, and it could be a worthwhile pastime for the next few months. The property value around the beach must have gone down with each new mount of trash and from the lack of a clean up crew minding their way through the waste, the municipality likely didn't have the funds to pay for it's removal.

Yes, he should do it. As a hero, no, as a decent human being, it was his responsibility to help those in need when he had the ability to do so. The dump site had to be a biological hazard for anyone brave enough to walk on the beach. Worse so, with the ground littered in small pieces of glass and twisted metal a wandering child could be severely injured if they ambled on the beach.

Plus, it would take his mind off the utter _lunacy_ he was about to undergo.

Toshinori lets his head drop with a exhausted sigh. Goodness, Nedzu could be one persistent, vicious little mouse. He'd all but gradually worn Toshinori down over the years and here he was now, back in Musutafu to teach at the school he'd graduated from.

As expected of the principal of one of Japan's top hero schools.

 _It won't be that bad,_ he consoles himself. _I'll be looking after the next generation. Maybe my successor is amongst them.  
_  
He feels his heart lift at the hopeful thought.

While he still had several years left as the Symbol of Peace, he didn't wish the next user of One for All to go through what he did. Unlike him, they would have Toshinori at their side at every step, training them until they graduated and became pro heroes. Only when they would be able to stand on their own two feet would Toshinori step aside and let them shine.

Teaching young heroes would prepare him for the day he found his successor. And since he was back in this sector of Japan, that meant he was only a train ride away from Hosu. Maybe he could pay Gran Torino a visit and ask tips from his former homeroom teacher on how to educate the next batch of pro-heroes-

Wait.

No.

Just.

 _No._

What little excitement he was able to muster was promptly drowned in terror at the memory of the elder pro-hero.

 _Better just send a letter._

It would be more polite _and_ keep Toshinori out of range from his former teacher.

Sighing, he shakes his head at his own reaction. How pathetic he was, a fully grown man shaking at the thought of encountering the elderly hero. But Gran Torino wasn't just any retired hero; age would never dull his senses or make him softer. Toshinori would bet his entire fortune that stepping onto his former teacher's doorstep after all these years of not seeing each other was asking for the tongue-lashing of a lifetime.

Or at the very least, in Gran Torino's own vocabulary, he'd get a foot up his ass for not visiting for so long.

Yes, a letter would be more adequate. And safer.

(Gran Torino could be old and grey and in a wheelchair, Toshinori would still fear for his own safety being around the elder hero.)

He shifts in the bench, folding his arms on his lap as his thoughts strayed away from his terror of the former homeroom teacher. His gaze focused on the beach -on the sun dipping low in the sky, brushing against the horizon yet not quite there. The seagulls shrieked over his head, calling out to each other in a faint cacophony that melded with the sound of the lapsing waves and the salt-heavy smell of the sea.

Despite this, Toshinori's uneasiness didn't quite go away.

Instead it dragged on, a tiny something tugging at his attention and leaving him incapable of relaxing. This feeling nipped at the back of Toshinori's head, making him shift on his seat, uncertain. After years of training, he'd learned to identify this feeling.

There was no doubting it. He was being watched.

A villain?

Toshinori tenses slightly at the idea, tucking the collar of his tan coat higher up to shield his face. No, unlikely to be a criminal. If they were confident enough to follow him around, then they would be facing Toshinori. He'd had a few of those cocky villains during his career, trying to jump him when he'd least expect it. The fights always ended the same; their pride always got the best of them.

No, for the lack of commotion it had to be a civilian.

Had someone seen through his disguise? He did have a stature few could match, and his golden blond hair was as trademark of All Might as was his smile or his booming laugh.

Furtively looking around, the pro-hero quickly spots his culprit.

A small, green-haired boy was propped against the railing several feet away from him, watching the beach silently. He's alone. Toshinori almost writes the child off as just a onlooker -but then he catches the quick, furtive glance of blue eyes towards his direction that seal the deal. This was his watcher.

Toshinori takes a moment to observe him in return. With his size, he looks as if he was barely reaching thirteen years. Tiny, with a mop of green hair and a sharp form that was swamped by the dark hoodie he wore.

To be paying so much attention to a stranger, the boy must have recognized him. Toshinori was pretty confident with his tan overcoat, matching hat and soft pastel pink scarf, but he'd learned not to underestimate fans after one of them somehow made it past security and he'd woken up in his apartment to see a random woman watching him sleep.

(Just the reminder makes him shudder internally.)

This civilian didn't look like he was going to make Toshinori sleep with the lights on for the next few weeks, though. If anything, with his small stature and gaunt body he looked like a mild breeze might knock him over and land him in the hospital.

It couldn't possibly hurt to talk to him; the only thing in his schedule for this afternoon was getting groceries, so he had plenty of time.. Toshinori had had his fair share of young, shy fans -a few minutes talking to him would make their day. Boost their morale and motivate them to make the best of the next few weeks.

Hopefully, this would be the case.

Mind made up and the beginning of a smile tugging at his lips, the pro-hero rises up from the bench and walks over to the child. The boy makes no move to walk away from Toshinori, who leans against the railing at his side.

For a moment they just stand there, watching the sunlight reflecting off the piles of trash. Seagulls crow over their heads, sharp beady eyes looking for scraps of food hidden amongst the cluttered beach.

The child moves at his side, drawing Toshinori's attention back to him. The boy's head turns towards him and the pro-hero's smile wavers when their gazes met.

 _Blue._

He's startled by the bright, unusual fractal patterns blooming from the center of the child's eyes, sharp and brilliant and demanding attention. He'd seen a lot in his life, but at the sight of the spinning wheels -and they were spinning, how did that even work- the friendly greeting that was about to leave his lips dies on the spot.

They seem to draw him in with the way they spun inside the child's eyesockets, demanding his attention. Now only feet away from the boy, he could now see that there was green in those eyes, just barely poking out around the edges of the irises. The grass-green color was almost invisible next to the vibrant blue.

It's only when that intense gaze moves off him that he realizes he was holding his breath.

'It's alright." The boy tells him gently, not looking at Toshinori. There's a hint of a sheepish grin on his lips, as if he was amused by the hero's rather impolite reaction. "I get that a lot. It's overwhelming."

Toshinori swallows. How impolite of him, to openly gape at the boy's Quirk in such a way. Truly not his best moment. "...my apologies, young one."

"Midoriya."

"Ah." Toshinori bows his head apologetically. "My apologies then, young Midoriya."

There's a twitch that travels the child's body. Small, barely there; unnoticeable if he hadn't been examining the boy so closely. Their eyes met again, and Toshinori swears he catches a flash of sorrow in that strange, luminous gaze before it's quickly suppressed.

"I'm sorry for spying on you, All Might." Ah, there it was. He was right, he had been recognized. "I didn't want to bother you. You looked like you have a lot in your mind."

Maybe it was how harmless the boy looked in his too big hoodie and the baggy pants. Or perhaps, it was the serene aura wrapped like a comfortable wool shawl around the child, seeping into Toshinori's body and settling as a pleasant warmth in his bones just as easily as his blue eyes caught his attention in a steel grip.

Either way, it was disarmingly easy for Toshinori to let the words flow out.

"I'm starting a new job soon. Teaching." It was strange that he was telling the child this, someone he barely knew, but for some reason the words tumbled out with ease. Maybe it was just how calm Midoriya was in his presence, a contrast from the usual behavior of Toshinori's younger fans. He was more used to the screaming and over excited, trembling children begging for his autograph. "I'm….hesitant. I worked with children before, but not in this setting."

Midoriya nods along to his words, the messy green bangs bouncing atop of his head. It looked like a little garden bush; Toshinori was half expecting one of the seagulls to try and land on his head. Distantly, he noted that they matched the green in his eyes.

"Yuuei?"

His mind stutters. Toshinori startles, looking at the green haired boy in alarm. How? Figuring out who he was was one thing -Naomasa always said his disguising skills had much to answer for- but this?

Taking in the pro-hero's gobsmacked expression, Midoriya smiles sheepishly. The fractals in his eyes give a lazy spin. "I don't think a middle school could catch your attention." The teen denotes, waving a hand. "It's obvious."

While surprising, it wasn't wasn't that alarming. His new position would be announced in only a month after all. It didn't hurt that the Midoriya knew this.

Still.

 _Sharp boy._ All Might chuckles, faintly embarrassed. "Right. It _is_ obvious, now that I think about it." He coughs.

Another nod from the green haired boy, then silence.

A seagull calls out in the distance.

"How about we take a walk?" Midoriya suddenly speaks up, back straightening as he turns to Toshinori. "I find that stretching my legs is a good way to get the brain juices flowing."

It's out of left field, but for some reason Toshinori still takes a moment to think this over. He had nothing to do today,how could it hurt?

The boy must have seen his answer on his face, for the child gives him a smile that Toshinori was pretty sure could eclipse the sun.

"So, what were you saying about Yuuei?"

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

"I think...you worry too much."

Of all things, that was not was he was expecting.

"Truly? Teaching the next generations of heroes is important." Toshinori defends as they walk down a street, minding to keep their voices low. Just because he was talking to a random civilian about this didn't mean he wanted the whole of Japan to overhear. "If I cannot step up and succeed, I might cause irreparable damage to my students and Japan as a whole."

Midoriya bobs his head. "If you think of it that way, yes. But you're overthinking it."

Toshinori's steps faltered -if only for a moment. Huh. Is he?

"What do you mean?"

Midoriya hums.

"Have you read on the other heroes on staff? Midnight or Snipe?" Toshinori offers his a questioning glance, to which the boy waves him off. "While they had more sidekicks than you've had at any one time, they didn't go through a regular education to learn how to teaching. They learned on the job, alongside their peers." Midoriya tilts his head towards the sky. The sapphire blue of the sunny afternoon only intensified the colour of his strange eyes. "See what I mean?"

Maybe.

"You're already good at public speaking." Midoriya continues, his voice barely drifting into Toshinori's ears through the screeches of traffic and the usual sounds of a city landscape. "So it's not like you will have a issue addressing them. Plus, you're All Might. They'll listen."

 _That I don't doubt._ At least his status as the Number One would aid him that aspect, but what was left was the fact Toshinori had no idea what would come out of his mouth.

"The issue is that I don't know what I would say." Toshinori informed his companion with a sigh. Nervous, he runs a hand through his hair and nearly knocking his hat off in the process. He scrambles for a bit to right it before someone takes note. "I've mostly dealt with sidekicks and fully licensed heroes; I've never had to address heroes in training."

Which was true. All Might rarely interacted with the lower tier heroes, high on their success and bushy tailed from being fresh out of school, still somewhat innocent to what hero work truly entailed. While he enjoyed mundane work when patrolling, ultimately his role as the highest ranked hero in Japan put him in a position where his coworkers were strong, seasoned heroes who had years under their belt and thus, were already fully prepared for anything Toshinori would throw at them.

The closest he had come to interacting with heroes in training would be the occasional speeches at festivals and similar events.

This was vastly different from supervising and being responsable of their growth.

"Well," Midoriya let the word hang between the two of them. "You could always pick up a book. The bookstore down in the sixth avenue currently has a twenty percent discount on _Teaching for Dummies_."

Toshinori shot him a look that the boy didn't catch, too busy looking ahead. That was...almost disturbingly precise knowledge. The way Midoriya spoke, he was referring to that particular book having the discount and not a store wide event.

Or maybe he was overthinking that as well.

Either way, Toshinori filled this little tidbit of information away for later. Instead of voicing his confusion out, he politely nodded and kept on walking.

Truly, Midoriya was something else. The quiet young boy offers his ears to him and a bit guiltingly Toshinori takes advantage of it. Toshinori spoke of Yuuei, of his worry about the security of the school, of how unprepared he felt at the prospect of teaching a entire class of heroes.

Nedzu had ultimately won the war, but Toshinori didn't feel ready even with the white flag having already been waved.

There's a part of him that notes how dangerous it was, for him to tell a random civilian about how he felt -think of the newspapers you daft boy, a voice not unlike Gran Torino's grumbles in his head- but Toshinori doesn't think this child would prove those worries right and run to the nearest news outlet.

He has no concrete evidence of this -it's just that Midoriya was just easy to talk to.

A person he didn't know, but he didn't have to worry about as long as he kept his word vague. There were few people he could speak to about this, and strangely, Midoriya with his calming presence jumped over all the hoops and managed to earn himself the position of listener.

Today he had been thinking of going to the supermarket and buying groceries, but conversing with this young boy was proving to be a wonderful alternative. Toshinori had forgotten what it was like to just relax and take in the sights.

The company wasn't bad, not at all. He steals a glance at the boy at his side while they waited for the light to turn green. Midoriya's looking at a fallen, rusty can of soda in a way that, with the slight tilt of his head, reminded Toshinori of a stalking cat staring at a bird.

The way his strange, fractal-patterned eyes spun like little wheels only made his stare seem all the more seem to do it at random intervals, but something told Toshinori there was some logic to this madness he had yet to crack.

Suddenly straightening, Midoriya shakes his head and walks closer to Toshinori's side, using the man's imposing stature to break through the faint crowd gathering at the edge of the street.

By doing that, he accidentally kicked the can, sending it rolling forward. Toshinori winces a bit as it catches on the foot of a impatient man yelling in his phone, making him stumble just as he was about to cross the empty street, forcing him to stop. The business man snarls and starts screaming louder into his phone, taking out his fury on whatever poor soul was on the other side of the call. The people around him shy away, grimacing at the distasteful language.

At the same time a speeding car rushes through, the driver completely ignoring the red light.

Toshinori stares.

Midoriya hums at his side, those strange eyes of him spinning lazily again. His small form was swaying side to side gently to the beat of a nearby store's loud music as he waited with Toshinori for the light to turn green, completely oblivious to the pro-hero's perturbed stare. Each tiny shake of his head made the green curls of his hair bounce merily.

The light finally turns green, but instead of walking forward, Midoriya turns to the left. He tugs on the sleeve of Toshinori's coat, who was still looking at the can. He barely feels the child's grip through the cloth.

"Let's cross the street." Midoriya asks politely.

Numbly, Toshinori follows, dragging his eyes away from the abandoned can like it held some strange fabled secret it refused to divulge. They cross the street, and with so many people walking around he can't see the can anymore, nor the man with the phone.

Neither of them speak.

By now they were just wandering through the city, but it was comfortable silence.

Toshinori sensed their time was drawing to a close and while a part of him was chargined, another larger part of him was looking forward to it. There was just so much to do. Midoriya had given him much to think on and despite his earlier anxiousness that had permeated in his bones ever since he'd folded to Nedzu, the blonde felt far more relaxed and at ease - the task ahead didn't feel monumental anymore -well, still a tiny bit- but something he was almost eager to face.

Unfortunately, this inner peace lasted until he heard a woman screaming.

He immediately scanned the street while stepping forward, putting the young child behind him. Midoriya makes no noise of discomfort or fear, only poking his head out from behind Toshinori like a interested cat. Distantly, the blonde hero notes how those bright blue eyes were spinning madly -far faster than when they were just walking around.

He files that away for later.

If they ever met again.

This might have been a day off for him -but as a hero, he could not just sit idly by. Toshinori was All Might, and he would eagerly step up to help in any way that he could. Even if it meant cutting one of his rare days of rest short.

"I think you should go home, young Midoriya." Toshinori tells the young child as he watches a thief rush through the sidewalk, shoving civilians out of the way. The man seemed to be made of a slime-like substance; what passed as a arm was wrapped around a thick black bag, from which hastily stuffed money spilled out.

Unbeknownst to the criminal, he was running straight towards the Symbol of Peace.

Toshinori was really glad they had crossed the street. It put him straight in the path of the villain.

The teen hummed at his side, unperturbed by the chaos heading their way. Maybe it was because Toshinori was towering in front of him, ready for a fight -but still, it was uncanny how he stared ahead, eyes a bit too wide yet still so calm. An owl wrapped in a human package.

"I think I should." Midoriya agrees with his words, nodding. "I'll see you."

(Where was the _around_ in that sentence?)

Toshinori takes his eyes off the villain long enough to give the child a thumbs up. "I hope we meet again, young one!"

He barely catches the way the boy's lips tug upwards in a stiggled smile. It makes his eyes flutter and the corners of them crinkle. "Yes," He tells Toshinori, branching away from the pro hero and away from the inevitable fight. "We will! Please take care of yourself, All Might."

Then he's gone, safely disappearing amongst the crowd of civilians.

Toshinori really hopes he will see him in Yuuei.

When he turns back to the villain, his smile shifts into a fearsome grin as he tosses his hat off and drops his overcoat off to the side, folding it on a nearby parking meter to keep it from getting dirty.

The comical whimpered sound the slime-man makes at the sight of Toshinori's trademark golden hair and familiar face is almost not human. The criminal dropped the bag of money and tried veering into a alleyway to the left to avoid the approaching Number One hero, but All Might was faster.

Unfortunately for him, there was no place to hide.

.

.

.

Izuku hums all the way home.

He's not in the best shape physically. He's a bit cold, his joints and especially his legs ache from hours of walking that his bed bound body wasn't used to, but overall it was worth it and he's in a bit of a high as he makes his way off the train. The day was drawing to a close; the clouds over his head were shaded orange and yellow from the setting sun.

There's a spring in Izuku's steps that he can't fight back, just like the grin on his face.

All Might.

He met _All Might._

Izuku's tiny little heart was about to give out from the excitement. Yagi Toshinori had been everything he'd known he would be and somehow, more than the amalgamate mass of information Omniscience had jammed into his skull.

Seeing the man and actually being in his presence were two very different things, Izuku finds.

Now he knew why all those _others_ held Toshinori so dear to their hearts.

- _why are-_

 _-came here to apologize-_

… _I was wrong._

 _You can be a hero._

His smile thins as Omniscience revs up, memory fragments from his last slip crawling up to the front of his mind like unwanted weed and just as tenacious. The happy buzz that had filled Izuku's limbs and smoothed away the pain slowly ebbed, leaving behind the prickly sensation of something sharp and too warm poking him in the back of his eyes.

His shoulders drop unconsciously and he tucks his hoodie back up over his head to shield his face.

It's painful, to be so close. To see what the other ones had. To see what he'd been robbed of.

And yet-

He had quite the stake in All Might.

(Always had since that day.

Since he was nine and he stumbled into Musutafu's eastern station, trembling, ill from the pills he'd stolen from his mom's purse and choked on in his haste to leave, clutching what few yen he had left from the train and screaming for Naomasa Tsukauchi to come quick, _there's no time he was going to slip again-_

-and all the while he could only hold onto his side as he howled the man's name and his body _burned_ , tilting and swaying with delirium and he could still feel the blood, could _feel the pain in his head in his eyes in his ribs_ _ **oh god the wound was too big where-**_ )

Izuku stops.

Squeezes his eyes shut.

 _Breathe in._

 _Breathe out._

He repeated those words solemnly under his breath, following the instructions until his heartbeat quelled to something more manageable. Until he could relax and force his muscles to uncoil, until the tenseness in his muscles eased/

It's only when the white noise fogging his mind drained away that he distantly noted how the fingers of his right hand were digging into the flesh of his left side. Izuku stares at it for the longest of times. He's only distantly aware of the pain -the pain his body was in in the present.

(Over the years, it had become harder and harder to separate what feelings were his and what were a product of his Quirk.)

If he squinted hard enough, prodded _Omniscience_ enough, he could still see the blood.

He starts walking again.

Izuku reaches his destination in silence. The hospital staff's relief is evident when they spot him going through the front door.

(Maybe they were just glad to not have to face a impending lawsuit.)

He's hauled out of the main room by a frantic doctor and herded to his floor. While he answers his questions _-no, my heart's fine, my legs hurt a bit but I'm not gonna kneel over sir and no, I don't need a wheelchair-_ Izuku doesn't miss how there were two more staff members on either side of him, like they were expecting him to bolt away at any moment.

If he was in a better mood, he would have commented on that. Did they truly believe he was in any physical state to be able to outrun-

" _ **Deku!"**_ A voice suddenly ran out through the hospital floor, the shout making the earth quiver beneath their feet like a terrible omen.

The face of the doctor in front of Izuku drained itself of all of it's blood in recognition.

The green haired boy blinks, the gears in his head working slowly as he identified the noise -or rather, it's owner. His heart jumps both with thrilled fear and joy.

Oh dear.

 _I wonder if he's gonna stick me in a tower. Then again, where would he get the dragon though.  
_  
(Well, if anyone went and found a mythical creature just for the sole purpose of making a point, it would be Kacchan.)

Izuku slowly spins around on his heels, immediately spotting a mass of ash blond hair all but barreling towards him. Nurses, doctors, patients and even visitors pressed themselves against the walls of the hallway to avoid the living cannonball headed the green haired boy's way. It's somewhat comical, to see full grown adults fleeing from a young teenager, parting like the Red Sea in front of the blonde.

But then again, said young teenager's palms were exhuming smoke and barely restrained explosions sparked at his fingertips, so it was understandable that they would choose to live instead of risking getting mowed over by the living breathing walking disaster of a human being that was Bakugo Katsuki.

Perking up at the approaching boy, Izuku waves at him. It was fascinating, truly, how easily his friend unknowingly chased away the darkness of Omniscience's omens by just being his normal, fiery self.

"Kacchan!" He chirps, barely blinking at the ensuing explosion and the reflexive snarl.

"Fuck you!"

Truly a sweet welcome.

Heaving and exhuming smoke out of his ears, Katsuki reaches him in no time. He stops abruptly right in front of Izuku instead of knocking him over like he would to any other person who made him wait, ever mindful of Izuku's health.

It didn't spare the blue-eyed boy from getting smacked upside the head.

"Ow." Izuku winces, leaning away from his looming friend. "Kacchan, really...?"

"Yes!" Katsuki's hands weren't sparking anymore, but there was some residual heat Izuku could feel from two feet away. "Where the _fuck_ did you go, Deku?! "

Izuku smiles faintly at this, ignoring a nearby nurse's horrified expression. By now the doctor and the staff tending to him had scurried away, all to used but at the same time not to Katsuki's particular brand of care.

With the blond's intervention, they were probably glad to have the opportunity to drop off Izuku to Katsuki and just not deal with him.

(He totally was the hospital's residential hot potato, wasn't he?)

"Out." He ultimately tells the fuming boy. Oh look, a eye twitch. Scratch the tower, he was going to be locked inside a fortified castle deep in a cave in the ocean. Logic aside, Kacchan would totally be able to pull it off. "Don't worry, nothing happened!"

The dubious, infuriated look the blonde offered in response made Izuku's insides squirm. For the boy who complained about Inko's patented Look of Disappointment, he somehow managed to pull it off quite well, though with a extra side dish of anger.

"Nothing happened my ass." Katsuki finally muttered after a moment, his expression not unlike that of a cat when forced through a bath. He reached forward and grabbed Izuku by the wrist, dragging him away from his escort. The staff seemed all too eager to watch him go.

After a few years of being their patient, they'd long since learned that only his mother, the Bakugos and Naomasa stood any chance at wrangling him.

Izuku let himself get dragged off. For all of his brash, forceful nature, his childhood friend's grip was surprisingly light and firm; he wasn't dragging the green haired boy as much as steering him towards the right direction.

"You got here early." He commented idly as Katsuki speed-walked down the hall, scaring people out of the way with his presence. "How was your day?"

"The fuck are you asking." Kacchan mutters under his breath. "My day was boring as shit."

"Hmm. Might be the lack of slime molestation." He watches as the explosive blonde nearly trips over his own two feet and snaps his head around to look at him.

" _What?"_

"What?" Izuku parrots back.

Katsuki glares at the cheeky response, eyebrow lifted questioningly. Izuku returns his gaze, forcing his expression to be as blank as humanly possible.

After a few seconds, Katsuki shakes his head and grunts in defeat. "Whatever. Fucking lunatic."

The smallest of the two stifles a grin. While the most tolerant of Izuku's strange dialect save his own mother, even the explosive blond had his limits.

"By the way, nerd." Katsuki suddenly speaks up with a grunt as he pushes the door of Izuku's bedroom open. "Mitsuki was in the room when Aunt Inko got the call. You're fucked."

Izuku's eyes snap open.

Shit.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Midoriya's long gone by the time he finishes apprehending the slime villain.

Toshinori weights the empty bottle of soda he'd used to contain the unconscious criminal, watching the two beady yellow eyes roll through the muck with just the faintest tinge of disgust and fascination. It was interesting, what Quirks could do nowadays.

It makes his mind drift back to the boy who had somehow managed to quell his worries within a hour of meeting.

Maybe he'll have the chance to see him at Yuuei in a few years. With eyes like that, he must have a unique Quirk to match.

Toshinori hoped he would be good enough of a teacher by then to guide the boy forward. With the calm way he reacted to the villain, his ability to lend a ear, Midoriya already showed a few attributes of what it took to be a hero.

' _I'll see you.'_

A peculiar phrase from a peculiar child. He can't fight off the tiny fond grin at the memory. Well, if young Midoriya said so, then there was no need to ponder over this after all. Toshinori was no fortune teller, but he had the faintest feeling that they would meet again.

And until then...

Well.

Who knew.

In the meantime, there were things he had to attend. Things _All Might_ needed to turn his attention to. Toshinori clutches his coat tighter around himself as he walks away from the scene, the villains secure in his grasp. He had a friend to meet and questions that needed answering and for once…

He tosses the soda bottle in the air and deftly catches it again.

...Naomasa didn't have a excuse not to meet him face to face. He had some questions for his old friend that desperately needed answering. Namely, that mysterious little friend of his.

* * *

 **Argh, this chapter was nearly ready like two weeks ago and I didn't get around finishing like one paragraph I couldn't for the love of me get out. At least next chapter is like, almost done, so I got that going for me.**

 **So one thing about Omniscience; while it's Op asf, it's also very much nerfed by it's drawbacks. As shown in this chapter, while the slips are the most obvious issue, Izuku also suffers from having difficulty separating himself from what he sees for sometimes, it's through someone else's eyes and if they are getting gored like canon All Might got, that is gonna stick with a kid. And this is only one instance Izuku gets dropped into someone else's shoes. There's much worse ahead :/**

 **For those waiting on Stygian Fire, that drops this weekend, sorry for the long wait. My jawbone keeps snapping out of alignment when I talk or eat and I'm the slightest bit miffed about it. It makes it hard to concentrate on anything :/ Apparently I might need surgery, yay.**

 **Any mistakes in this chapter please comment, I'll get it fixed tomorrow when I get back from school.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter:**

 **Omniscience made him see too much, too fast. Maybe that's why Izuku didn't spot the snake hiding in the grass until it was too late.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Gets on to writing because if I delay Stygian Fire again people are going to strangle me**

 **ends up finishing this instead.**

 **Wat.**

 **Lady .exe has made an error.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Tsukauchi Naomasa**

Naomasa's bad, no good, very tiring night starts late in the afternoon with a phone call.

Grabbing his phone off the desk, he glances at the number displayed on screen, questioning who could be calling at this time of the afternoon when he was just about to clock out. The corner of his lips twitch upwards in recognition, and he is quick to accept it.

The moment the line connects, he goes right for it. "And here I thought you would come see me in person. Or are you getting on the years, old friend?"

A snort is his answer. "I actually am." Toshinori's voice echoes smoothly through the call, faintly amused. "On my way to your station, if you have the time. I have a few questions for you."

Naomasa bites his lower lip. The way Toshinori spoke, he knew what his friend was aiming for. He hadn't approached the topic of telling the truth to Izuku, so he tries to evade. "You should come over another day," He says a bit too fast, and he has to wince at his own stupidity. "I'm working-"

Toshinori cuts him off all too excitedly. "Good, good! I have a villain at hand that needs processing!"

"Drop it off the front-"

Someone knocks on his door.

"...door."

Toshinori is being suspiciously silent on the other side of the call.

Naomasa blinks, pulling his phone away from his ear. Frowning, he glances between the open phone and the door. There's something in his belly that doesn't quite sit well -a gut feeling the detective is not enjoying.

With a creeping suspicion, he gets up and slides the door open.

A man his size shouldn't be able to pull off a sheepish puppy expression but somehow, Toshinori did look exactly like one as he held up what looked like a bottle of soda filled with something green and murky. Naomasa jolted as he saw two yellow eyeballs floating in the liquid, little x over where pupils were supposed to be.

Naomasa openly stare, forcing his face to remain as neutral and flat as he could muster. His eyes drift between the soda bottle of all things to his friend's brilliant smile, which wavers upon seeing the unimpressed expression on the smaller man's face.

They gaze at each other in silence, each waiting for the other to make a move.

Naomasa finally breaks the staring contest.

"Tomaki," He barks, startling Toshinori. The officer who was darting across the hallway behind All Might, clearly trying not to get in the middle of the conversation startles and looks at him. "Here."

With one smooth, flowing move that reeked of exasperation, Naomasa plucks the soda can and tosses it to his fellow employee. The man barely manages to catch it. Satisfied, he turns to the bemused pro-hero.

"Go with him. Process the villain." Toshinori opens his mouth to speak, but Naomasa lifts a finger. "We'll talk after that."

With his piece said, he stalks out into the hallway and walks off.

Toshinori splutters like a wet cat behind him. "W-where are you going?"

"Getting a latte."

He ends up getting a black coffee with barely a drop of milk and sugar. It's not the whiskey he desperately wants, but he consoled himself with the knowledge that that day will come. Hopefully, soon.

One of the interns looks faintly horrified as he watches him force the coffee machine into making this monstrosity, but the detective had spent enough years working here to have long passed the line of giving a shit about what others thought. Half of the officers here had a caffeine addiction anyways.

Naomasa nurses the drink in his office while he waits for Toshinori to finish the processing. Thirty minute later, the pro-hero steps back into Naomasa's office, closing the door behind him.

"So." Naomasa begins as his friend sits down on the guest chair. He closes his eyes, inhaling the sweet, sweet aroma of caffeine. "Anything I can do for you, Toshinori?"

"Can't I come see an old friend?"

Naomasa peaks at him from over the coffee cup. He takes a sip instead of answering. "Hmm."

Toshinori barrels right through that lukewarm response. "I thought about coming in earlier, but I got sidetracked."

"...really?"

"Yup." Toshinori hums. Naomasa takes another drink. "I met a wonderful fan today. We had a nice conversation, and he gave me some advice about teaching!" Then he smiles and twists around, fumbling with his coat before pulling out a small, yellow book from one of the pockets. Naomasa sees _Teaching for Dummies_ written on the cover in thick black lettering. Huh. How nice. "I hope I see him again. People like Midoriya -they remind me of why I am a hero." The grin on his face is blinding.

 **What.**

A lesser man than Naomasa would have spat out the gulp of coffee he'd just taken. Only years of training and exposure to his charge's shenanigans kept him from covering his last report in his drink.

 _Goddamn it Izuku._

So this was the source of the not good feeling in his gut.

"Really?" Naomasa inquires with a painfully wide smile his friend somehow didn't pick up on.

"Yes," Toshinori continues, unaware of the tiny heart attack he was giving his friend because shit, Izuku wasn't supposed to be out alone _what if he slipped and got hurt he had nothing to do with it but Miss Midoriya was going to have his_ _ **head-**_ "...it was a most wonderful conversation. Quite quaint. I wonder if I'll end up seeing at Yuuei someday."

"Not everyone has a Quirk suited for heroics." Naomasa reminds him gently, a contrast of the restless panic he was trying to keep down because this was not what he needed this late in the afternoon.

He was old, damn it. Or at least, he felt old at the moment. Naomasa could feel the grey hairs coming in.

God damn it, he should have taken the whiskey instead.

Discreetly, he flipped his phone open and ran through his mail looking for any mention of his charge wandering out of the hospital again. By now, the secretary knew to message call him directly instead of going to the police when it came to Izuku. He'd fixed that up with the hospital's owners with just the slightest bit of badge-waving.

To his consternation, there was no message from the hospital in his mail. Naomasa sighs quietly in relief and flips his phone closed.

Alright. He knew what it meant; Izuku returned to the hospital just fine in less than three hours after his escape. There had been no need for him to step in. Izuku was safe and well.

Well, it didn't do anything for the early grey hairs Naomasa was getting _but good for him._

"True." Toshinori murmurs thoughtfully, reminding the detective that he was still, in fact, very much so in the middle of a meeting so no, it was unprofessional of him to lean down and retrieve the bottle of hard whisky tucked in the lower drawer of his desk.

No matter how tempting it sounded.

"He sounds young. Was he alone?"

"Huh, yes?" _Fuck_. That's it, he wasn't bringing him pastries next time. Izuku was supposed to know better. Screw the almond tarts he enjoyed so much, Izuku would have to subside on hospital food for the next week if he got Miss Midoriya in on it. "He left quickly, so I did not manage to catch him. He seemed to know his way around though. I think he lives by Dagobah beach?"

Naomasa barely restrains a scream. _Try halfway across town._

"Interesting and _completely_ accidental meetings aside," Naomasa leans back, ignoring the soft, confused sound Toshinori made at that. "I'm guessing this isn't a social call."

He watches through half-lidded eyes as his friend lowers his head, only to jerk it back up after a moment. Their eyes meet.

"That's right." Toshinori's voice is low and firm, a rarity outside of briefings that makes Naomasa straighten in his seat in attention.

There it was.

"I want to talk about the Sybil."

("Why that name?" Naomasa had asked long ago, peering at the young boy fiddling with a notebook.

"Well," Izuku began, pausing to flip a page. "Sybil comes from ancient Greece. Those were the name of the old women who spoke of prophecies." Izuku lifted three fingers. "It's a good diversion. I'm neither a woman, or old. By picking that name, villains are expecting a dusty old lady."

A diversion.

"Smart." Naomasa chimed.

A pause.

"You _do_ have the creaking joints of one, now that I think about it."

Izuku throws a stuffed All Might at him in response.)

It was one thing know what All Might was after -it was another to have the confirmation.

Toshinori's suddenly sharpened eyes bear down on him, questioning.

There was no use beating around the bush, was there?

"They live here, in Musutafu." Naomasa swallows, minding his words as he spoke.

He'd need to be very careful of what he said during this conversation. Izuku would never forgive him if he let something slip -well, he would given his young friend's merciful personality, but Naomasa would expect to give up most of his last paycheck to bride him with hero collectibles if he wanted the child to ever talk to him again.

Toshinori perks up like a dog. "Really? Do they-"

Naomasa interrupts him, looking down at his desk.

"-know that you are here? Trust me, they know." _And they will have a stern talking to after this call._ "I told you, Toshinori. They will talk to you directly if they need to."

A low, disappointed sound left his friend.

The detective squints. "Toshinori, please don't tell me you're just in town to harass my-"

Immediately the blonde starts spluttering.

"Not at all!" The hero exclaims, slightly indignant as he hastily attempt to explain himself. Naomasa didn't look up, but he could bet his paycheck that he was waving his arms around like a frantic child attempting to hide a broken vase from their mother. "Well -yes, seeing the Sybil was one thing, but I also came back in town to teach."

"At Yuuei. You got the job in the heroics department's training class. I know."

Silence.

Tiredly, Naomasa looks up to see Toshinori's wide eyed expression. _Here we go._

"Yesterday." The pro-hero states blankly, bewilderment slowly creeping in when he spoke next. "I only confirmed with Nedzu _today_."

"If you're moving here, you're going to have to get used to this." Naomasa takes a sip of his drink. "Their range spans far and wide. You moving here to teach causes ripples. Draws attention."

 _Not only from Izuku,_ he thinks solemnly, remembering the teenager's warnings. There's many who which you harm, friend. _Many more that wish to tear the society you've helped build down._

Silence.

A sigh leaves the taller man. "I just wish I could meet them. I never got to thank them for saving me." For the greatest hero in the world, Toshinori acted and sounded like a kicked puppy. There was no way a grown man like him should look so downtrodden. Especially knowing he was capable to turning mountains to rubble.

Naomasa chuckles at his hopeful expression.

"I passed the message along the last fifty times, friend. They know your gratitude."

"I'm sure." Toshinori murmurs. His hand drifts down, fingers running on his left side. Naomasa feels his throat tighten at the thought of what could have been, if Izuku hadn't almost killed himself to get the message to him. "...but, I don't feel like that's enough."

Naomasa opens his mouth to speak -but that's when he hears his phone ring.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Izuku wakes from a light slumber at the sensation of Omniscience _screaming_ in his head.

At first, he can only press his palms into his eyes, trying desperately to relieve the pressure to no such luck. It's not the first time this happened, that Omniscience decided to keep him awake at night because it wasn't satisfied with the information it gathered during the day and it thought nighttime was the perfect opportunity to shove what flavor of chips Mui from down the hall liked to eat and why down his throat, regardless if it's host needed sleep to survive.

So, grumbling and hissing under his breath, Izuku goes to fetch his painkillers.

The moment he stands up from his bed however, the nausea sets it.

It's only then that Izuku registers what exactly had his Quirk in such a frenzied state.

Too many paths were spitting off at once, faster than he was used too -he'd long learned how to tune out the billion of different divergence that happened every fraction of a second, the minuscule little changes that rarely affected things in the grand scheme. In the case of those changes, his Quirk worked very much like one's sight would if they were high up in the sky; the biggest, most contrasting landmarks would be the only thing their eyes would pick out.

For someone standing so far above, it was impossible to glimpse a single blade of grass from the billions that composed the landscape.

But this was different.

This time _large_ branches were veering off, spluttering and breaking away and twisting all around each other until Izuku couldn't focus and lost the careful grasping understanding of the future ahead. He can't focus on where he was, which path was his and which was-

The world goes sideways.

 _the crushing pressure of a hand over his mouth_

 _panic, things shouldn't be like this if they found out he would be_

 _the sharp burn of a blade sliding over his throat_

 _the sting at the corner of his eyes as he struggles to breathe through the thick arm wrapped around his neck_

 _wide green eyes, teary and wet as the boy gasps through the blood dripping down his neck, gurgling as more and more red spreads on his clothes_

Omniscience flickers and falls blessedly silent, if only for a moment.

His free hand flies to his throat.

Izuku quietly dry heaves.

Stupid, stupid Deku, he should have been more careful-

There's something bitter and acidic threatening to crawl his way up his throat. His grip on the bed's railing tightens to the point of near pain, barely able to stand on his own. His mind is unpheaved, a whirlwind of disorganized thoughts that swirl and twist and break and he can't hold on.

A single thought however rises from the chaos, commanding and cold that pierces through the madness in his head.

 _I have to get out of here._

He can almost hear the footsteps through the walls, the minute left until those feet reach him -until his position in the timeline reaches this sudden splinter he hadn't seen, too caught up with Kacchan and All Might to see the danger approaching. And now he was paying for it.

Maybe with his life, even.

But what could he do now? He had only seconds left before the choice was taken away from him.

His eyes dart to the panic button the wall. For a moment, his fingers twitch with the urge to reach for it, press it and have the nurses come running -but then he remembers his attacker's panic and a bloody smile and he can't breathe-

For the briefest moment, he wants to curl up under his bed. Maybe then he won't be found.

Omniscience twists like a agitated snake at the back of his eyes. Images flow in -hand dark grip pain scream knife - _and no,_ Izuku thinks almost emptily as he feels this other Izuku die a drawn out death from the panicked stabs to his stomach, _it won't do. There's no hiding._

But he has to let someone know.

He has to do something.

If he gets here and nobody was warned...

Omniscience burns. _menace car knife bind black mask pain torn out no no no-_

 _Stop it!_ He screams inside his head fruitlessly. _I need to focus! I can't, I can't..._

His Quirk brushes against his mind, unrelenting. From the barely restrained river Izuku lets through, it shows him another section of the splintered road. He falls silent, breath faltering as his mind scrambles to grasp how these paths moved, what he needed to do. What he could do.

Because when it came to humans, there was always, _always_ a margin of error.

Izuku takes a deep breath and stumbles over his nightstand. Quickly, the green haired boy reaches into the drawer and grabs hold of his phone.

(The paths rippled and break again, appearing and fading and twining into something else than a abrupt death. It's not a relief, to know that they didn't want him dead. Not yet.)

Secured in this knowledge, he flips it open.

It takes only a moment to send his location.

Then he shoves it back into the drawer, walks over to the door and waits in the dark, with only his thundering heart and ragged breath as companions in a room that suddenly didn't feel safe anymore but caging him in, keeping him trapped at the mercy of the approaching danger.

Izuku can hear the footsteps now.

Slow, measured. Apprehensive.

His legs feel like lead under him. Like a deer caught in the headlights of a approaching car, he can only stand there, wide eyed and stiff as the door soundlessly slides open.

There's a man standing in the doorway. He's wearing a nurse's clothes, which contrasts with his thick black boots that are decidedly not part of the uniform. They're still dirty from walking outside.

He's also holding the very same knife Izuku had seen carving a bloody smile across his throat.

* * *

 **Stygian Fire's next chapter drops in like 2 hours tops, don't kill me ;m;**

 **Also the previous estimate of the story lasting 10 chapters was wrong, I think. I see it going 20 chapters at most. So cheers?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Ayy, not dead.**

 **Also just realized that we are at chapter 6 and we aint at Yuuei yet. God fucking damn it.**

* * *

"You're awake."

If he was still before, he was now stone.

Stiff and quiet like a hatchling bird fallen from its nest, hoping it would be overlooked by the roaming predator. But for Izuku there was no place to hide, nor to run. His room had no balcony and there only entrance and exit was the bedroom door -the very same one that is currently blocked by the bulky figure holding the knife.

The man shifts on his feet, furtive dark eyes darting across the room, searching for someone other than Izuku. The grip he had on his weapon was tight enough that his fingers were pale and his tendons stood out against the dim lights of the hallway. Izuku tries to keep his eyes off it.

Just seeing the blade was enough to make his nausea worse.

At first, neither of them talk. Maybe the man was expecting him to yell, to panic, to do anything a normal person would do in this situation -but in this case Izuku can't even find it in himself to speak. Nor a croak or a wheeze left his lips, for there was something clogging his throat, tightening around his neck like a noose.

 _screaming, loud and shrill as the metallic gleam of the knife catches in the light_

 _oh god the boy was choking that man was going to kill him_

 _blood was spreading in a pool_

 _the sickening crack of a neck snapping as his head hits the step_

 _ice spreading across a hallway, cold crawling up his legs where did_

 _too late too late Izuku had counted on him and god he'd_ _ **failed**_

The urge to be sick is back, barely held at bay by the blind terror crippling Izuku, keeping him still like a deer in the headlights. Omniscience claws at the back of his head as paths split and twine and melsh again, endless and vast . There was no end in sight, the new paths warping his sight of the timelines until it all melded together into a mass of crisscrossing roads and information.

At another time, at another date, he would have sat down and carefully gone through each and every one of them, pulling apart what Omniscience provided to form an reliable picture of the future.

Here, he had no such luck.

The man took his silence as permission to approach. Izuku makes no move to run or fight back -terrible, terrible idea, Omniscience tells him with flashes. His stomach and head hurt.

He lets the man wrap his hand around his left arm, eclipsing his wrist in a massive hand. "Don't make a noise, or things will go bad for you. Got it?"

 _Truly, horribly wrong,_ Izuku thinks numbly as he's tugged forward.

Omniscience agrees with a lazy eye spin and more images.

Sharp coldness pressing against his chest brings him back to awareness, reminding him that the real world was still a thing. The man's staring down at him with narrowed eyes, disatisfied by his lack of an answer.

"Got it?"

Izuku nods slowly.

Satisfied, the man turns around and leads him out of the room. Numbly, the green haired teen allow himself to be dragged out of his bedroom and into the pearly white halls. They're empty.

(Not for long.)

Bright lights and doors pass by Izuku's eyes as he's hauled along.

Omniscience squirms like a eel at the back of his eyes.

 _right turn left hall_

And then it happens; a figure comes out from around the corner and nearly walks into them. There was no stopping this. Feeling like a bound prisoner walking the plank of a boat, Izuku watches on.

 _There she was._

Dark brown hair, blue eyes. Slender, with bags under her eyes and a nurse uniform. She's not someone he knows personally per say, but she is another face in the crowd he sees every day through his Quirk. Just a random person…and yet, one who could change everything.

(This was what made humans so hard to predict. Just the action of one, no matter how small, could do _so much more_ than they'd originally thought.)

Upon noticing her, the man holding him freezes like a deer in the headlights. Izuku's eyes connect with the nurse's. She falters, gaze shifting in confusion between the two of them, clearly wondering what they were doing at just a ungodly hour of the night.

Then her eyes lands on the knife, barely hidden between their bodies. Just like in Izuku's vision, the metallic gleam of the blade catches on the hallway lights, too bright to be overlooked.

She screams.

Izuku's blood runs cold.

The man holding him jolts at the sudden sound, knife swinging instinctively. Large, thick fingers tighten around Izuku's arm to the point of bruising, and he can't stop the quiet sound of distress as he hauled closer like a ragdoll, the knife rising up to press against an exposed collarbone.

"Quiet, you bitch!" The man hisses, startling the terrified woman into stifling her shriek.

There's a moment of silence. Izuku hopes she's not going to scream again because if she did the man would-

 _sharp knife red panic_

There's the faintest phantom burn across his neck.

The path his timeline is on splinters again, every new road just as bright and important and _calling_ to him like a shiny light to a firefly. He can't stop his back from arching slightly at the sudden sensation that comes with it.

 _Stop!_

It's no use trying to reign his Quirk in; the weak reigns he has on Omniscience phase through his fingers like water. It almost seems to sneer at him, shoving a newer, stronger deluge of information that sends him reeling.

He is nearly swept away, his head barely stays above the water. Heart pounding, stomach lurching, Izuku weathers through it.

The last thing he needed was to slip under; he really didn't want to even think what would happen if he did.

(Would he even wake up this time?)

The man mistakes his flinch for a feeble attempt to struggle and tightens his grip, pulling him close so they're chest to back, with little to no wiggle room. Distantly, Izuku feels the warmth of his breaths against the nape of his neck. It makes the hairs at the nape of his neck rise.

Upon seeing this, the nurse snaps into action.

"Okay." She _-Akano likes cat friendly no stop -_ says lowly, hands raised in front of her in surrender. Her panicked eyes constantly shift between Izuku and the kidnapper. "Okay, it's okay, please think about this. He's just a k-"

The knife digs against Izuku's skin. He winces as a droplet of blood trickles out, burning eyes squeezing shut as Omniscience rises up like a tidal wave, demanding attention.

Through the nurse's eyes, Izuku sees himself. In rumpled pijamas, he's practically dangling from his kidnapper's grip. There's a steady dribble of red running down the front of his shirt, staining his clothes.

"Shut up." The man growls, low and dangerous.

So dangerous.

If he thought he was cornered, there was no doubt that he would do something terrible. Izuku's fingers twitch at his sides.

Useless.

 _Think, Think._

What was all this knowledge worth if he couldn't do anything with it?! There had to be some way he could...he could-

He's suddenly rattled like a doll, making him choke on a gasp. The knife accidentally digs into his skin more. The cut stings and the green haired boy is only barely able to restrain himself from wiggling away.

The man's snarling at the nurse. "Keep your mouth shut, woman, or I'm splitting the kid's throat open."

 _I don't doubt that._

Like the sea after a tide, the nausea came back at the threat -with force, accompanied burning fingers digging into his skull, digging in cruelly, leaving his mind exposed to more of Omniscience's endless bounty of knowledge. It's too much -he's being swept away. Izuku squeezes his eyes harder to the point of borderline pain, a muffled sound not unlike a sob forcing his way out of his lips as he fights to limit his reaction.

(He could almost feel that knife running across his throat, over and over again, different angles and different times, ripping his trachea and carotid arteries open-)

Then Izuku hears it, piercing through the fog and slamming him back into his mortal body.

Shouting.

Multiple people, shouting from somewhere on the floor below. And the sounds were growing louder.

The man freezes again, head spinning around as if he's expecting someone to suddenly materialize behind them. The curse he lets out is muffled and before the nurse or Izuku could try to do anything, he's moving. Izuku feels his hold shift, a thick arm wrapping around his shoulders into a death grip as the man shoulders past the nurse who scrambles out of the way, heading towards the back of the hospital.

The woman says nothing as they rush by, eyes wide and expression unsure.

As he's hauled along like a doll, Izuku takes the opportunity to squeeze his eyes shut and try to calm his breathing, which had grown sharp and ragged from a mixture of fear and nausea.

Experiencing things and feeling them through Omniscience was very different, Izuku thinks dazedly. There's always been some barrier between the two -being and simply experiencing. Only on extremely rare occasions did Omniscience threaten to shred through this veil.

This was one.

Izuku had only once experience an outburst of this magnitude, and he still had the nightmares of missing organs and choking on his own blood.

He had been under at the time, though.

This was different.

 _This was real._

He's right in the middle of it, exhausted and under assault from his own Quirk. Not to mention, the knife against his throat. It's very different from laying in his bed and letting the visions drown him, he thinks numbly.

The hallways rolls by, each as white and empty as the last one. The lights dig into his eyes, forcing Izuku to close them again. It doesn't alleviate the pain.

Distantly, he registers that the sound of shouting was growing louder. He thinks he hears sirens. Were they sirens? Police sirens? Or the hospital's alarm system? His ears feel like they are stuck underwater. He can barely hear the ragged breathing of the man dragging him away in a rush. The crushing grip around his shoulders and neck feel far away, too.

Omniscience writhes like a snake against the back of his eyes. _Turn left. Then right. Pass the alcove._ Paths shatter into millions of little pieces only to reform into something even more fragile.

 _So close…_

"Izuku!"

Rough and desperate. Blue-green eyes snap open, fractals blazing.

 _Naomasa._

The kidnapper comes to a abrupt stop, jerking Izuku froward. The sudden movement shoves the knife harder against his neck, though Izuku barely registers the new cut. The pain was but a nick compared to the steady built up of warm at the back of his eyes.

God, he feels like they were going to burst.

" _Fuck, it's him."_ He hears his kidnapper mutter lowly. Eyelids fluttering, Izuku peers over the thick arm threatening to strangle him.

It _was_ Naomasa. The detective looks a bit wild-eyed as he stands in front of the exit door. His coat is wind-swept and his hair was a mess -though all of that is filed away at the sight of the gun he has pointed at the head of Izuku's attacker.

Huh.

At the endpoint of his friend's gun.

This wasn't a position he'd ever expected to be in.

Naomasa's gaze strays down to Izuku. Even with several feet of distance between them, Izuku can see the reflection of his eyes in the older man's, bright and spinning wildly out of control. They look like little full moons; the white of his corneas looks almost grey next to it.

"It's okay, Izuku." The detective intones, weapon lowering slightly. He offers Izuku an attempt at a reassuring nod. Despite the squared shoulders and determined expression, the dark, wild gleam of his eyes betrayed his nerves. "It's okay."

Because of the arm digging into his trachea, Izuku can only nod dumbly. Then the arm around his neck clenches. Izuku can't stop the wheeze from leaving him even if he wanted to; his throat felt like it's getting crushed.

Naomasa's gun rises back up at the sound of him choking.

His lips are curled back into a half-snarl. Fury dances in his eyes; his brows are set low, twisting his face into something determined and _angry_ that the attacker doesn't fail to notice.

"Don't step any closer," The kidnapper above Izuku growls like a cornered animal, tilting his knife against Izuku's skin to show it off. It glints silver under the light fixture. "...or the kid gets it."

"Actually," Izuku croaks through the hand choking him. Air was becoming a luxury and Omniscience roaring in his eyes like it was going to pop them out of his skull certainly wasn't helping his case. "-you came here for me. I don't...I don't think your employer w-will be very happy with you if I died."

There's a rumble next to his left ear, low and threatening.

"I'll do it, you brat."

 _Knife._

 _Red._

 _Ice._

 _Too late._

His eyes _burn_.

 _I don't doubt you,_ he thinks numbly.

"You know who I am." Izuku replies quietly, voice low and somber. The grip constricting him to the man's chest wavers. Slowly, he turns his head to meet his attacker's gaze. "You _can't_ hurt me."

The world _twists_ and Izuku's suddenly looking at blue-green eyes he knows too well.

 _fuck what do I_

 _he's right can't_

 _there's no other option_

 _that brat_ _ **Shigaraki-**_

The familiar fractals were spinning wildly out of control, almost fast enough that the green in the corners and the darker blue of the fractals meshed into a pale blue color. There's blood in the corner of his eye sockets; it drips down his cheeks in two little rivers, overtaking the freckles on his pale skin.

Omniscience was too rattled up for his body to handle the strain.

A blink.

Now he sees the dark brown of the man's eyes, the same he'd just accidentally borrowed. The kidnapper swallows. His own terrified gaze darts around, looking for an escape. Izuku sees where his eyes rest -the hallway doors of the patients' bedrooms, a janitor closet. A closed, barred window. The exit door under which Naomasa stands.

He can almost hear the gears in the man's head turning. The mounting panic. The wavering resolve.

The knife slowly pulling away from his clavicle. The arm curled around his throat slackens, if only slightly. Izuku breathes-

Then Naomasa's eyes lock onto something _behind_ them and his eyes widen with panic as he shouts:

" _ **Don't!"**_

Crap.

Just like that, the spell is broken. The kidnapper lets out a snarled yell. Izuku chokes as the grip on his throat tightens to the point of choking. He rasps, legs kicking in the air as Omniscience buckles and _shrieks_ -

He's suddenly the tree in the hospital's garden, great and ancient, heavy branches stretching to the night sky.

He's the floor under their feet, solid waxen tiles that shone under the lights.

He's the warmth of Naomasa's fingers around his gun, tight yet lending yet firm.

He's the woman hiding terrified behind a locked door, hands clasped over her head as she overhears the shouting.

He's the gleaming knife pressing against thin skin, insistent and cold. Digging in.

He's the cop standing on the other side of the hallway, frozen stiff at Naomasa's barked order.

Izuku shudders, gasping and rasping for air as the sting of the new cut drags him back from the edge.

 _Breathe in._

 _Breathe out._

Nothing. It does nothing but remind him that he needs more air and fast unless he wanted to fall unconscious. Omniscience continues to dig into his brain, insistent and ever _scorching_. His flimsy reigns had long crumbled to ash. There's warm wetness in the corner of his eyes.

It drips down his cheeks.

Maybe if he just closed….just for a moment…if he could relax…

 _No!_ He forces his eyes open, fighting through the heaviness of his eyelids. _Don't you dare, you dumb idiot._

"Boy's right." Naomasa's lips are pressed thin. His eyes don't stray from Izuku's upper left, where the man's head is. "You can't afford to kill him."

Izuku feels the kidnapper shifts restlessly behind him. "Yeah, I can't." The knife shifts location, pressing against his side. Omniscience buzzes at the back of his eyes, alight and almost excited. New paths splinter off into the unknown, a mess of threads he cannot hope to untangle. New knowledge flows in, and the only thing Izuku can do is bear the brunt of it. "I can still mess the kid up, detective. Step aside." Izuku can hear the smirk as he speaks next. "Those big glowing eyes of his make a pretty good target, don't you think?"

Omniscience latches on to that like a ravenous dog.

 _red knife burn scream_

Izuku has to bite his tongue to fight the nausea. He wants to scream in frustration. The one time he needed his Quirk to quiet it down, it decided to got crazy.

At the threat Naomasa grits his teeth, but he doesn't move from his spot. Feet planted firmly on the ground, a unmoving wall between the man and his freedom.

Izuku's had enough.

"Still damage to the cargo, Momoru." Izuku speaks up, tired. Had he always sounded so raspy? The man jolts against him, breath hitching at the unexpected use of his name. "He won't like that you injured me."

There's silence.

It's probably not the smartest him to say, but it was the only card he had left to play. Izuku watches through Momoru Zakaza's eyes as Naomasa shifts on his feet, gun lowering slightly.

"Listen here," Naomasa pauses, swallowing as he mulls over how to deescalate the situation. Izuku only listen to him halfheartedly. There's spots in his vision that he's certain shouldn't be there. ".. I got All Might right aside surveilling the area." At this, Izuku jolts -though he's not the only one, as the man holding him does, too. "Your accomplices are long gone. You're alone." Then, harsher, more desperate. "For the love of god, _do the right thing."_

Panic bleeds through Izuku, one he numbly registers as not his own.

There's a yell.

"You're bluffing!"

"Do you want me to bring him inside?!"

"Please don't." Izuku croaks out in between them, squinting through a blurry eyesight. Naomasa shoots him a furtive glance that even with his wavering vision clearly spells _shut the fuck up, Izuku._

"I don't care. I have-" A Naomasa's eyes, Izuku watches as Momoru shakes his head furiously, looking almost feral. "I have to do this. I don't have a _choice_."

Naomasa's expression darkens even further. "There's always a choice." He takes a breath. The air hangs stiff over their heads, a silent danger about to come down toppling on the three of them. "Just, think about it. He's just a _child_. Do you really want to do this?"

The kidnapper snarls, pulling the knife away from Izuku's side and jabbing it towards Naomasa. Izuku's heart jumps. "Fuckin' lies, I know who he-"

Omniscience's scream rise to a single sharp pitch, so loud it fills his mind with cold static.

Several things happen at once.

With the man focusing on Naomasa, Izuku takes the opportunity to twists in his grasp and bites down on his left cheek. Hard, forcing every bit of his helpless anger into the muscles of his jaw. It's enough for warm blood to spill.

The kidnapper _howls_ , dropping him.

Izuku has only a moment to celebrate his short-lived victory -and then his head connects with the smooth tiled floor with enough force to send him reeling, a bitten off cry leaving his lips. Omniscience stutters at the back of his head, momentarily stunned into silence by the blow. He has to squeeze his eyes to stop himself from passing out. He can't afford to.

There's shouting. Or at least that's what Izuku thinks he hears. It's really hard to think, actually.

His mind feels foggy and full of static.

But he's more than aware when he hears a loud cracking sound.

 **Thump.**

 _Was that-_

There's silence.

"Izuku? Kid!?"

Naomasa.

"...I'm alive." Izuku exhales as he opens his eyes, shaken. "Not hurt." His face is half mushed against the cold floor. There's blood on his tongue. Strangely, his breath was coming out as a white mist, visible to his eyes. He blinks.

 _Oh._ He muses, lightheaded. _So things went that way._

The man had fallen over a few feet away, limbs spread wide. He's not moving -the top of his hair is matted and darkened with a familiar scarlet liquid. The floor under him gleams -and it's not just because it's clean tiles.

No, there was something more to it.

Wincing, Izuku props himself up on his elbows. A tan blob rushes past him -Naomasa, he remembers- and kneels over Momoru's prone form, forcing his arms folded against his back. From this angle Izuku can't see what he's doing, but there is no need to -at the back of his mind Omniscience lets him see what was going on through Naomasa's gaze. He's cuffing the man roughly. The policeman that startled the kidnapper darts over to help.

Then his eyes turns around and meets green-blue. It never got any less stranger, Izuku thinks, to see himself through another's eyes in the most literal of senses. It's dizying. It's not helping his mounting headache.

"Izuku, stay where you are."

"Hmm." Izuku would be more polite, but that would require more working brain cells than he had in working order so that, regretfully, was not something he could offer at the moment. Thankfully Naomasa was too busy securing the kidnapper to pressure him into saying something more coherent.

That's good. By now Izuku just wants it to be over.

He's not sure his heart could take this amount of stress.

But then something pulls at the left corner of his eyes, demanding his attention. Omniscience quiets just long enough for Izuku to understand what it was showing him -and he turns his head around, heart swelling with something warm and grateful.

As expected, one of the doors by his left was halfway open.

There's no light from inside the room -they'd been turned off- but a woman sat on the floor, knees tucked in under her body, a pale lender hand pressed against the floor. Ice bloomed from her fingertips in a perfect halo of glittering white.

Their eyes meet. Spinning cold blue versus silver grey.

His savior hesitates, wilting under his gaze. Izuku watches her retract that tiny, delicate hand against her chest. A worried, conflicted expression takes over her weary face.

"...thank you." Izuku tells her gently, not wanting to scare the woman who just saved his life.

Rei nods shyly, her snow white hair bouncing with the jerky movement. Then her nerves get the best of her and she closes her door quietly, eager to shield herself from the chaos outside. He doesn't feel miffed by this.

Izuku wishes he could do that.

Because with the pain of the blow wearing off, Omniscience was slowly crawling back to the forefront like a rising tide. Ugly, jittery like a kid stuck in a sugar high, pressing against the back of his eyeballs hard. It's not the first time Izuku had gone through Quirk backlash, by now he was intimately familiar with it, but he'd never had such a reac-

Wait.

No.

He had.

His left side throbs with phantom pain. The blood in his mouth didn't help the matter. Izuku's eyes sting something fierce, so he closes them.

"Izuku?"

 _No, leave me alone._

The universe has no time for his whining, however. There's a hand on his shoulder, the pressing warmth startling him into letting out a pained groan. Since when did Naomasa get so close?

And more importantly, why did he hear his own heart pounding in his ears?

The hand shifts, reaching over behind him and pulling him off the floor. There's more warmth. Only distantly he registers that the warmth is due to being wrapped in familiar arms.

"Come on, Izuku." He hears the detective say soothingly somewhere above him, but when he opens his eyes, Izuku finds that he can't see too well. There's a blob shaped like Naomasa's dark mop of hair, but he's not sure it's him by sight alone. "Snap out of it. I've got you. You're fine now."

 _I know,_ Izuku wants to croak, but his tongue has more important things to do. Namely, do a stupid and sit inside his mouth acting like a dead weight. _I knew I would be fine._

It's a stupid lie he tells himself.

(Because there had been a million different ways this could have gone wrong. There were a million different ways this _went_ wrong.)

He'd always thought he was in control of things. Beyond his slips, beyond the huge margin of error his Quirk made when considering humans, Izuku always had some sort of hold on the future. It was the only thing he could do.

It was the only thing he was _good_ at.

But as Izuku was reminded today, there was a difference between knowing something and _experiencing_ it, firsthand.

Naomasa smells like stuffy office air and coffee, a familiar combination that for once, does little to soothe Omniscience. The Quirk just kept digging and _digging_ , forcing things into his head; pushing the dam of knowledge to the brink of what it could hold.

Just the reminder seems to spark the Quirk into movement, the pressure that had stopped with his head acquainting itself with the floor picking up steam once more. Paths split and twist and fade away faster than he can grasp them, and yet he can't look away from the chaos this new development had thrown the timelines into. The groan that leaves Izuku's lips is done through clenched teeth.

God, he just wants to sleep…

Almost angrily, he shoves his face into what he hopes is Naomasa's chest and just sags there, defeated. Yep. If he could just stay here for a bit, that would be perfect.

There's shouting above him.

"Hey, hey! Izuku?" A muffled sound. He's jostled, and it makes his injured chest hurt enough to make him hiss. Immediately, Naomasa stops. "I need some help over here!"

Footsteps.

"Is the-"

"Yes! Now get me Midoriya's doctor, now!"

There's more shuffling and shouting, though it seemed distant. Everything felt distant, to be fair.

After what feels like hours, Naomasa shifts around him. Hands reach for his left arm; Izuku stiffens when feels a familiar sting on his forearm. A needle.

When did they-

"It's okay, it's okay Izuku." Naomasa whispers into his hair, holding him loose yet tightly enough that he could feel it, but not feel restrained. It's a nice gesture, Izuku thinks faintly with what little of his brain was still functioning. "Just relax. It's over. You're safe." The detective says gently.

A large hand rests on side of his head, cradling the mop of green hair protectively.

Dumbly, Izuku nods against the soft fabric of his shirt. He's pretty sure he's smearing blood into the man's coat.

 _I'm safe._

Relax. He could relax.

Right?

It wasn't that hard.

Cold stabbing pain at the back of his eyes remind him that Omniscience was still writhing. Right. He still had that to deal with.

Now that he thought about it, it doesn't feel all that painful anymore -there's a creeping cold spreading through his limbs, a detached sense of relief hanging over his mind. A blunt realization that _oh shit, I lived_ that did little to alleviate his racing heart or Omniscience's trashing but worked well in dragging him down into a familiar abyss.

Fuck. His eyes hurt so bad, they felt like they were about to burst right out of his eye sockets. Could they just do that so it was done with?

"Sleep, kid. You don't need to keep fighting."

Maybe it's because of the needle, maybe due to the shock, but somehow, he manages to forces his body to relax. Nevertheless Naomasa continues to hold him until the sedative kicks in and the world fades away to darkness.

It's only then that Omniscience relinquishes it's hold and falls silent.

* * *

 **So, that happened. I gotta say this chapter was hard to write overall. Omniscience is such a bitch of a Quirk to figure out how to write. It's dizzying keeping track of what it decides to do. Urgh. I'll probably edit this chapter later on once I get my ducks in a row. Still not really satisfied with it.**

 **I kept the Rei surprise pretty close to my chest per say, but I tried slipping in some hints during the previous chapter. The last one, especially.**

 **Also, I think you can figure out the extent of Omniscience's power tho with this chapter.**

 **Anyhow, next chapter is more planned so that's gonna be better. Next up in the schedule for updating is Stygian Fire tho, so that's gonna have to wait. And for those wondering, that sucker is coming out in two days ish top. Prepare the fucking tissues, friends. Writing that chapter actually made me cry.**

 **Next Chapter:**

 **Omniscience is explained. Katsuki is not happy. Toshinori is confused. Naomasa just wants another damn drink at this point. No Izuku, you can't have any.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I live! Well, I always lived. My other stories were updating, just not this one lol. No worries we're back in track with this one,**

* * *

"You chomped on a guy's face."

Well, there were worse things to wake up to.

The flat, stoic statement cut through the fog of medication permeating through Izuku's mind, drowning out Omniscience's familiar hum of information. Blinking away the last remnants of sleep, Izuku slowly turns his attention to the weird looking blonde blob at his left side.

It takes a few seconds for his eyes to adjust and for his vision to clear.

A sharp, pointed face, blonde hair and carmine pupils greet him. Tightly pursed lips and a wrinkled nose that betrayed nervousness and worry.

"Oh. Hi, Kacchan."

The narrowing of burning scarlet eyes was his response. Rightly deserved, given the situation.

With half-lidded eyes, Izuku watches as his friend gnashes his teeth, hands twitching restlessly atop of the covers with the need to act.

Katsuki has always been like this. Burning too bright and wound up too tight, filled with the need to do something. Even before he'd assumed this role of protective older brother for Izuku, he'd always been in motion, never stopping, tugging Izuku along who could only hold on for the ride and bask in the radiance of his friend's light.

Mitsuki often used to joke that her son was born feet first and screaming, ready to take on the world within his first breath.

Izuku liked to believe that.

While the blonde contemplates his murder Izuku looked around, using this moment to pull the last of his groggy mind from the darkness of medicated slumber. They're in his bedroom, the door is closed. His favourite chair was pulled up next to the bed, with one blonde in it. The windows are drawn shut; sunlight poured in. The blinds were pulled back, letting it all flood in.

The sky outside was a bright, inviting clear blue. It was serene, the kind of sky he would spend hours watching from his window while doodling in his notebooks.

It's beautiful.

Too beautiful.

Inexplicably, it feels _wrong_.

(Wrong, that the world kept moving on after what happened.)

Izuku looks at the room again. Now that he was more awake, he noted more things. Small and out of place, that he didn't spot in his initial surveil. Coffee cups lined the drawer. His phone sat on the nightstand. There's Kacchan's dark brown vest thrown over his chair; right under it, Izuku spots Naomasa's tan coat.

 _So it did happen in this timeline._

Only in this-

Izuku breathes.

"Oi, Deku."

"Hm?"

"You're spacing out, nerd."

"I am." Izuku agrees easily. The medication still flowing through his veins left him sleepy and relaxed, quelling some of the tension in his gut that came with the realization of what, exactly, occurred the night before. At least he hopes its only one night. It wouldn't be the first time he slipped after being put under by his doctors. He's too hesitant to focus on Omniscience and check the time, though. "Shouldn't you be at school?"

Katsuki looks almost too smug when he responds. "I skipped," He tells him, tilting his head back; the sunlight makes his hair gleam a soft, calm gold. "-apparently, my cousin nearly getting kidnapped and murdered is a pretty good excuse to nope out without getting chewed on. It won't affect my perfect attendance."

Izuku squints. "But we're not cousins." He none too helpfully points out.

A snort leaves the older boy.

"Bitch, with the rate my old hag and your mom are going, we practically are." Katsuki grumbles. "Plus, _Auntie Mitsuki._ "

Blue-green eyes blink. "Hey, she likes it!" Izuku defends after a beat, fully awake now.

He gets a lopsided grin in response. "It's goddamn pitiful, that's what it is."

"Like you don't call my mom that, _Kacchan_."

The blonde glares.

They lapse back into silence. Izuku looks out the window.

A bird flies by.

Too peaceful.

He hates how the world keeps spinning and spinning and _spinning_ , just like his eyes, just as if nothing at had happened. Like his body didn't ache from wounds it did not sustained, like he didn't nearly-

Izuku curls his hands, digging his nails into the fabric of his bedsheets.

Sometimes it's hard, knowing just insignificant things were to the universe. Your loved ones could die, you could go through the worst pain imaginable, have your dreams crushed forever...and yet the universe kept on trucking along, pulling you with it as readily and surely as the Sun pulled the Earth around itself.

It felt unfair. He feels it, the thick painful pressure of something that wanted out crawling up his throat. Repressed anger and frustration molding together to form words that sounded far too weary for someone of his age:

"He panicked."

He watches as Katsuki stiffen. Slowly, the blonde draws closer, brows knitted together in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Izuku allows the silence to stew. Knowing him, knowing that he needed a moment to gather himself, Katsuki allows it.

Izuku barely heard his friend's softer than usual voice. His ears felt like they were filled with cotton, and his mouth continues to move without his explicit consent:

"He panicked." Izuku repeated blandly. It's only when he feels a light touch against his stomach that he realizes he's drawing a invisible line over his skin, following a invisible diagonal cut. "I screamed. He panicked. He took his knife and stabbed me in the gut. Eight times."

Katsuki is silent. Encouraged by the lack of response, spurred on by Omniscience's slowly increasing presence in his head Izuku continues, moving his hand up to his chest.

"Cornered. Panicked again. Wanted to make a example out of me. Two stabs."

Then he slowly, almost gently drew a finger over his own throat.

"Nurses were coming. Sirens -he heard them. Knew it was over. Slit my throat in front of-" He pauses, swallowing. "...of Naomasa."

Oh god, he could still remember that one. It was branded into his memory, the look of pure horror and shock, the cry of anguish the detective let out as the man ran the knife across his throat. Seeing his reaction hurt him more than seeing any of the alternative paths.

Despite this, his mouth kept moving. Independent of his mind, it kept talking.

"Rei was too late. Hesitated. Iced too much. He got through Naomasa but slipped down the stairs, lost his grip -I broke my neck of the sixth step."

Silence. There's guilt not his own swallowing him, drowning him.

Omniscience ripples, low and soft and terrible.

Finally, he presses his hand to his own chest. He could feel his heartbeat under his fingers, and he focused on it; reminding himself that it was still there, still beating.

"Naomasa didn't arrive on time." He murmured, softer now, as if speaking any louder could somehow cause the world to shift on its axis and drag him down that path. "He -he brought me to the man who sent him. He brought me to All for One."

Unconsciously, both of his hands slide up to his face, resting over his glowing, spinning eyes. Izuku barely registers the warmth of his palms against his eyelids -he's more focused on how his vision was darkened, narrowing his attention to the paths spread out in front of him. A endless maze that never stopped growing, stretching out towards the horizon.

"He stole it."

His eyes did a single spin -then something slipped through the cracks of the dam, pressing white-hot against the back of his eyes. Against Izuku's will, a tight, punched out sound leaves his throat.

 _cold so cold black digging in too much pressure he won't it won't he can't that's not how it works_ _ **you can't steal it it hURTS**_

Fingers dig into his wrists, wrestling his hands away.

Izuku blinks blearily at the sudden light, startled by the interruption. He looks up to meet burning red. Katsuki was half on the bed, lips curled back in a sneer. At that moment, he looked like a lion, about to roar in fury at those who dared trespass upon its territory.

"Stop that." Katsuki hisses, voice sharp like a viper, yet Izuku could hear the wavering undertone hastily hidden under all that fury. "Don't fucking say that, you idiot."

"It's the truth." Izuku looks away -his gaze strays to the window. "I saw it." He mutters.

Katsuki is silent at his side.

"I felt it."

Tiny, choked. Izuku makes a odd, croaked sound, the words _he tore it from me_ dying in his throat long before they made their way out.

Wordlessly, Katsuki crawls over from the chair to the bed and grabs him by the front of his shirt, dragging him into a bear hug with characteristic roughness. Izuku sinks into it, huddling in like a child, grateful for the strong, powerful arms wrapped around him -keeping him close and safe and _here_ , just like Naomasa's had hours ago.

Izuku knew that he would never be harmed as long as he was here.

His Kacchan would not allow it. Katsuki, who fierce and protective and so so bright. He would be _safe_ with his friend at his side, hands that will be one day capable of demolishing entire street blocks folding around him, holding him tight and together as Omniscience languidly pulls itself out of its medicated slumber.

Truly, Katsuki would make a fine hero someday.

(Izuku quietly hoped he would be there to see it. Not through his visions, but be there, physically, standing at his side and smiling as his friend caught the attention of the world.)

"You know I can't comfort for shit," Katsuki breathed next to his ear, his frustration clear despite his attempts at sounding composed. Izuku could feel that rage right under his skin with the way his arms were tight around him. "-so I won't."

Izuku almost snorts at the bluntness.

"The fucker wants your Quirk? Okay. Nothing you can do about that." A pause. Alright, Katsuki really was going for the throat of the matter. Izuku's throat felt dry at the reminder of why he'd been assaulted just a scant few hours prior. "But you can do a lot to keep it from happening. So the question is now," Katsuki continues, pulling away just far for their eyes to meet. The look in his gaze was focused and knowing.

Izuku's grip unconsciously tightens on his friend's shirt.

"...what are you going to do?"

The question hangs in the air like a challenge, the tone ever a classic of his friend as the explosions he could produce.

Izuku doesn't speak up at first.

Acting….acting was not his thing. Izuku knew that. He was the informant, he gave other people what they needed in order to get things done. Izuku never had to bother about strategizing, especially against a man that was practically a cryptid in Japan's criminal history. He merely let others be aware of what was ahead and let Naomasa sort it out for the most part, because that was his role.

Natural disasters were nigh inevitable. They were events that Izuku could grasp from the stream of information Omniscience gave him because of that very same fact; they were like boulders in a stream, piercing through current. Strong, tall; inevitable. Build ups over months or years or decades that could not be avoided.

He could predict humans, but not very well. Humans were too different. Fickle. Chaotic.

It was as fascinating as it was _annoying_.

"I...I don't know." Izuku finally mutters, looking down at his lamp."-but...I'll think of something."

Katsuki snorts, pulling away fully to sit back on the couch. Izuku didn't try to defend himself as the taller teen reached over and used a lone finger to poke him in the forehead.

"It's a start."The blond huffed, a lopsided shark grin tugging at his lips. "Don't dwell on it too much, nerd. You'll overcook that big brain of yours."

"I-"

He's stopped by the door opening.

Katsuki immediately tenses on the couch, hands reflexively clenching in that familiar pose they took when he was about to unleash his Quirk. Izuku blinks, startled for once. Omniscience had begun acting up, but it was far from the constant stream of information he was used to.

There's no need for panic however, as the person who steps into the room is intimately familiar. Izuku could spot that mess of short black hair from miles away.

Naomasa Tsukauchi makes no noise as he closes the door behind him. His shoulders are hunched, his steps lumbering as he makes his way to the bed. Izuku side-eyes Katsuki, who had slowly relaxed once again on the couch. For a moment, Izuku is reminded of a tiger, all soft and calm as it stretches out in the sunlight for a catnap -but ready to spring onto its feet and fight at a moment's notice.

Judging by the dark circles under his eyes, Naomasa has none of Katsuki's elegance, however. Izuku doesn't know what to say -what he could even say after that- so he lets the man approach.

Still, he's not expecting the man to suddenly _slump_ on him.

"Nao..?"

"Kid." Naomasa's exhausted exhale ruffles the top of his hair. "Don't do that."

Izuku hums quietly. "Do what?"

"Your eyes were _bleeding_." Naomasa hissed out through gritted teeth against his hair. Oh. "They had to get someone with a scanning Quirk to take a look at you because they were worried your Quirk caused internal hemorrhaging in your brain. Izuku, you could have died and it wouldn't even be because of that bastard but because of _stress_."

"Oh."

"Oh indeed." Naomasa says, his voice muffled and exhausted. "...I think Inko wants to just fly you out to a abandoned island to live there so you could stop being such a mess. Frankly, I agree."

"I'll start packing." Katsuki commented wryly. Izuku squirmed away from Naomasa's entrapping embrace and squinted at the older boy, who glared right back smugly. Even wiggling his brows at him, which didn't fail to make Izuku's lips curl up in a tiny smile.

Against him, Naomasa let out a heavy sigh.

As if he had a mind reading Quirk, Katsuki jumps up from the sit and sits down next to Izuku's legs, leaving the chair free for the detective to flop over. Which the adult does with a grateful groan, limbs slack against the furniture.

There's a pause as Naomasa catches his breath and composes himself. Then his head crans up and his eyes lock with vibrant blue-green.

"You need to meet All Might."

From the sidelines Katsuki merely blinks, as if he was already expecting it. Izuku was having none of it however and made a wordless noise as he flopped back on his bed. Arms over his face, nose tucked in a elbow. It's childish, but Izuku can't help it.

Just Naomasa saying it brought a whole package of emotions he wasn't ready to deal with.

The detective wasn't taking his silence as an answer this time. "Izuku, it needs to happen."

"Hmmm."

"He's still in the hospital."

Never before did Izuku stand up so fast in his bed. " _What?!"_

Naomasa looks down at him with a somber expression.

"He was with me when I got your call. I didn't tell him -but he figured out some things." The man explains, biting his lip as he falters. "I didn't let him see you. But he knows you're here. I'm barely able to keep him away right now, much less the media and the police." The grimace he makes at this is shared by the two other occupants of the room. Izuku looks own at his lap. "This dynamic we have, it can't keep going."

Izuku stays silent.

Unfortunately, Naomasa doesn't need his agreement to continue.

"I already spoke to your mother. She agrees we are going to need to move you from this hospital. We don't know where yet, but it's too risky for you to stay here."

"...I understand."

Naomasa falters.

"I'll be back in half an hour, with him."

"Okay." The single word that bubbled out of Izuku's lips sounded even meeker and defeated than he'd thought they would. "Okay."

He hears Naomasa swallow.

"Okay." The detective parrots; Izuku peers through his arms to see him exchange a glance with Katsuki whom so far, had been watching the conversation with narrowed eyes. "You won't regret it."

"I'm already regretting it."

Katsuki chortles. Naomasa makes a small, soft noise.

"Of course." Naomasa tells him kindly. "Rest. I'll handle things for now."

Izuku frowns. "But-"

"Izuku." The detective tells him sternly and Izuku remembers, suddenly, that this person wasn't just his friend but a adult as well. A member of the police force, no less. The authority drips from Naomasa's lips as he pins him in place with one look. " _Rest_. Don't give me that look, I know what you're thinking." His gaze softened. "Let me handle it right. You nearly died last night. I'm not letting you step a toe out of this room and if I didn't have to do this, trust me, I would. But my hand is forced."

Izuku ducks his head. "Right," He murmurs. "-you're right. I understand."

And he did.

Things could not continue the same way. His anonymity was gone, and hiding in plain sight would only endanger those around him -helpless, sick people, who Izuku would rather die than use them as body shields. The villains wouldn't care if they hurt the people at the hospital if it meant getting their hands on him -All for One wouldn't even blink.

They had to change tactics.

 _He_ had to change tactics.

Just before he went, Naomasa turned to look at the silent blond slumped at the end of the bed. Izuku watches as Katsuki peers at the adult with dark, narrowed eyes.

"You don't need to tell me shit, old man." The blond says, expression resolved and calm. Solemn. "Go. I'll take care of this fucking disaster, you handle the one outside."

"H-hey!"

Naomasa nods.

"I'll be back before you know it. With All Might."

That sobered up the two children.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

When Naomasa dragged him out of the police station, hat forgotten and coat barely dangling from one of his arms, Toshinori was unsure what to think.

One moment the phone rang and Naomasa peered at it. The next thing he knows, they're all but flying out of the office, Naomasa shouting indiscriminately at the cops around him -barking for them to dispatch several cars to a hospital's address. For those who were available to drop anything they had that wasn't urgent and _move_.

It was a side he'd never seen to the man before. His friend was panicking, a strange mounting terror that emanated from the detective's body and found its way under Toshinori's skin.

He knew, instinctively, that he had to hurry as well. And when Naomasa gave him the address, he wasted no time picking up the smaller man under an arm and leap, One for All crackling through his body like a barely contained thunderstorm.

What could have brought his friend to such a state?

What was in danger?

 _Who_ was in danger?

The thoughts swirled in his head, growing deeper and more chaotic the longer he flew through the dark, dusky air, eyes locking on the hospital when Naomasa picked it out amongst the lights of the city and shouted there, that's the one! Practically right in his ear.

So with the urgency of the situation, Toshinori was most confused when Naomasa stumbled away upon landing, panicking limbs flailing to keep in balance after the dizzying flight like a newborn fawn, and told him to stay put with a garbled voice while heading for the backdoor he'd insisted All Might landed near.

At first, he resisted.

"Naomasa, you can't be serio-

" _Toshi."_ Naomasa growled, turning his head to meet his gaze and holding it. At the dark, flat tone, Toshinori froze. "I'm serious. Don't follow unless I yell for you."

"...alright. I trust you."

The detective's eyes softened. "Don't you worry, I know what I'm doing. Keep a eye out for trouble, friend."

And with that, he was gone.

Which led him to where he was now, hours later, sitting in a chair that struggled to keep his weight, holding a cup of coffee that was just the right size for him to hold comfortably. It's starting to get cold in his hand.

Not exactly what Toshinori was expecting.

He feels completely out of place here. He rarely visited hospitals beyond the visits to children and charities, and the occasional fight that left him with a few scrapes.

Idling by, waiting for something to happen left him off-balance and unsure.

So when he finally spots his friend again, scruffy, unsteady but _here_ , Toshinori can't help but perk up. Naomasa was approaching him rapidly; his coat was gone, but he looked like death warmed over. Despite this relief courses through him as Toshinori offers the other man a blinding grin, a hopeful attempt at cheering him up.

"Hey, Nao-"

Naomasa sat down next to him, takes the large, tepid cup from his hand and promptly drinks it down in one go.

Toshinori can only stare, wide-eyed, at this god given human form.

"Media's on my ass." Was the first thing his friend says as he licks his lips, eyes darting around, still looking for more caffeine. Toshinori silently hoped it was only his second one for the night but even if he was an optimist, he was certain this was far from true. "The chief of police, too. Can't keep things hidden anymore. At least, not as well as before."

Hidden. How peculiar of a word.

Hesitantly, he posed the question burning at the tip of his tongue. "...is this about the reason we came here?"

"Yes." The detective muttered as he leaned back, head hitting the wall behind him with a dull thud that made Toshinori wince in sympathy. "There was a security breach. Someone important nearly got..." Naomasa's face did a peculiar little twitch as he resolutely stared up at the ceiling. "-taken. The kidnapper was apprehended before permanent harm was dealt."

Toshinori let out a soft, questioning sound. Who was it, he wondered? A member of the government? A hero in recovery?

Wait, did he say _permanent_ harm? His mind flashed back to the screaming he'd heard from the depths of the hospital. He'd nearly barreled into the building right there and then, and would have if a very flustered officer had told him the situation had been taken care of.

"Are they alright?"

"He's fine." Naomasa muttered lowly, gazing at the wall opposite to where they were sitting. He had a far-away look, the kind he made when he was knees-deep into a case and trying to brainstorm a solution. "He's recovering at the moment. It was too close for comfort."

Toshinori observes him quietly, not knowing what else to say. He. So it was a man? He tries to rake his mind to find a male of enough importance to send a normally well kept and professional man such as Naosama in such a flurry-

-it's at that moment that he catches it. Naomasa's eyes flicking down to Toshinori's left side, contemplating. It's not even guarded or furtive, but rather slow and deliberate, as if he's trying to communicate something only he could understand but could not voice out loud for fear of being heard.

Information only a select trio knew, as far as Toshinori was aware.

And two of these individuals were sitting in the hallway.

 _No way._

Cold sweeps up his spine at the realization.

"You mean…"

Naomasa turns an exhausted, worn gaze towards him. There's bags under his eyes and he looks like he's about to fall over but somehow, his gaze still manages to carry a strange, hardened look of resolution Toshinori had never seen before.

"You wanted to meet the Sybil, Toshi? Here's your chance."

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

"I'm gonna meet All Might."

"Yes."

" _I'm gonna meet All Might."_

"Fucking yes." Katsuki stresses out the last word, grinding his teeth in irritation.

"Just let me die." Izuku croaked, fiddling the bedsheets. "I'm not ready for this.

His childhood friend grumbled noisily from the chair, crossing his arms. "Oi, don't die on me. Your mom will have my head." He wrinkled his nose. "The old hag will too."

"But you won't miss me?"

"Fuck no, you're a headache."

"Meanie." Izuku sighs, falling back against his pillows. The warm softness swallows him up, but fails to comfort him as much as it should. His stomach felt too tight and twisted for him to relax. "Why do I put up with you?" He babbles, trying

"Because your chances of survival dramatically rise if I'm here to keep watch over your ass." The blonde muttered, nonplussed by the nervous fidgeting. "Just calm down."

"I don't feel ready." Izuku admits, swallowing as he gazes up the ceiling. "Is that even a thing? Should that be a thing? I need to meet him."

God, why did that feel like a death sentence? Was he being melodramatic?

"-with All for One making his move, I need to make sure we are on the same page and talking through Naomasa is not enough anymore. There's really nothing I can do to avoid this can I? I can't do this - _oh god they're coming here right now-_ "

Izuku halts, brows furrowing as Omniscience did a odd little squirm at the back of his head. Abruptly he turns to Kacchan -only there was no blonde sitting by his bed. Instead, he was standing next to the window.

The very much open window.

He even had a leg sticking out through the frame, as if he was about to leap out from the second story of the hospital. And Katsuki doesn't even look guilty. If anything, his expression is set into a different look of innocence -which contrasted with the absurdity of the position he was in.

Izuku can't help but splutter as he connects the dots.

"Wait no -Kacchan _you ass!"_

The shark-like grin the other offers is not comforting. "Don't worry, you've got this, Deku! I trust you to not fuck up."

"What?!" It's so out of left field that Izuku balks. "You barely trust me to cross the _street_ alone!"

"Exactly!"

"But..." Izuku pauses to stare at the smirking teen, dumbfounded, his medicated brain struggling to piece the puzzle parts together. "But that doesn't make any _-hey!"_

He scrambles out of bed too late, his movements too jerky and slow to get him upright in time. It was a familiar betrayal from his weary body, but it didn't fail to irritate him. In the meantime Katsuki had already taken advantage of his lapse in attention and without even saying goodbye, he jumps out the window, even yelling out as he uses his Quirk to land safely below.

Hearing the explosions didn't make Izuku feel any better. Clutching the edges of the window, he peeks his head out and glares down at the mop of blond hair two floors below.

"Kacchan, _you dick!"_

Katsuki doesn't respond. Even with his back turned, Izuku knows the older boy was smirking as he darts out of sight. They'd known each other since practically diapers, he could read him like a open book.

...which meant, he really should have expected this.

So much for one of the most powerful foresight Quirks in recorded history.

Izuku grumbles under his breath. In all honesty, he can't find it in himself to be truly angry at the blond -god, if he could jump out after him he totally _would_ and for a moment he thinks about doing just that and making his friend catch him. As angry and antisocial as Katsuki was, his hero instincts were on point and it felt like he was born with a built in alarm to detect Izuku's bullshit.

But as he thought that, the tiny part of him that was responsible and followed such horrible things as logic and manners reminded him that he's metaphorically chained to this room. At least, until that door opens again and his cover is finally blown.

At this reminder, Izuku can only let his shoulders drop in defeat. He sighs deeply, letting his head rest against the windowsill.

"Okay."

 _I'm going to kill him._

"I can do this."

 _No you can't._

The door behind him opens.

 _Fuck._

* * *

 **Sike, All Might seeing tiny bean boi again is next chapter. Apologies for that, the chapter needed to be cut in half because otherwise it will take me another month to finish it lol.**

 **Next update is going to be MUCH faster. I already got like 40% written out and it's already fully planned out, and that's half the hassle when it comes to writing.**

 **See you soon!**

 **Next Chapter:**

 **All Might doesn't know what to feel. Izuku feels too much. Naomasa just wants vacation time at this point, honestly.**

 **Oh, and Shigaraki lurks in dark corners.**


	8. Chapter 8

Naomasa didn't know what he was expecting when he came back to Izuku's room -some shouting, some broken furniture and knowing Katsuki at least some scorch marks- but his charge standing in front of the open window wasn't one of them.

He gives the boy a flat stare. Izuku looks at him like he's got his hand in the cookie jar.

"I'm not trying to jump out the window."

Naomasa squints, closing the door theatrically behind him. "Hm."

"I'm really not." Izuku reiterates quickly. "Kacchan did though. You mentioning All Might got him into a tizzy."

He blinks.

Well, that was _slightly_ more believable.

Still, he didn't like how close to the window his troublemaker of a charge was. Izuku might not be one of those children with no self preservation instincts -although come to think of it, jury was still out on that particular topic- he was however a very unlucky person, especially given his Quirk.

Off the top of his head, he could count on both hands and beyond the worse places Izuku had slipped under Omniscience's influence. The top of the stairs was the number one spot for numerous reasons, but it was far from the only accident. There were those _five_ times he collapsed in the middle of the street and that one time he went under while he'd gone to get lunch from the hospital table.

In that particular instance, a nervous Naomasa had gone to fetch him, only to find him stretched on a cafeteria table while a group of _very_ anxious adult patients called for a nurse's attention.

….to the point, Izuku plus an open window was a bad combination waiting to happen, and Naomasa would breathe better if the boy was far away from it.

Thankfully Izuku strayed away from said death trap and wandered over to his bed on stiff legs, sitting down on it. Reflexively, Naomasa stepped closer and pulled the still-warm blankets up to his lap.

Izuku snorts with wry amusement. "I'm not a child." He chimes, but the way he didn't stop him from messing with the bedsheets told the detective another story.

This time it's Naomasa's turn to huff, this time fondly.

"Of course." He replies, compliant. He steps back once Izuku is tucked in, gazing down at the amused teenager with fond eyes. "Just let me do this, kid."

Izuku's smile wavers.

"...he's right outside, isn't he?"

Naomasa falters. He can almost taste the tension in the air, his charge's nervousness somehow permeating through the room like a dark cloud. "He is." He says after a moment.

Izuku's expression spasms. After a moment, the boy looks away to the window.

"...can't delay it anymore, can I?"

In that moment, Noamasa yearned to ask the question that had been burning at the tip of his tongue for years. _Why don't you want to meet him?_

Avoidance didn't make sense. Why would he be so apprehensive of All Might? The man was utterly harmless despite One for All; a real bleeding heart, the devoted, compassionate self-sacrificing kind that the detective rarely saw out in the real could understand nervousness given just how reverent Izuku was of the Number One Hero, but this flat out avoidance was a red flag that Naomasa hadn't been able to crack for years.

 _Unless he knows something he's not telling,_ a tiny voice pipes up at the back of his head. _Something so bad that it makes him weary of contacting Toshinori personally._

It's..it's not a thought Naomasa hasn't had before.

"-something wrong?"

Naomasa swallows. "No." He reassures his charge, but the word taste hollow on his tongue. "I'm going to get Toshinori in here now. Ready?"

The resigned stare Izuku gave him looked more at home on the face of a hundred year old man. He's too young, Naomasa thinks. Too young for this. Too young for everything he experienced.

He knew, intricately, how Izuku's Quirk worked. How it wasn't just _knowing_ things that he had no right to know, that it wasn't just staring out into space and having the knowledge deposit itself at the back of his mind like a well written script, showing him everything he needed to know.

Rather, the knowledge clawed its way in, plenty and bountiful -too much for a child's mind to bear.

In Naomasa's opinion, too much for _anyone_ to bear.

He hold his tongue though, knowing that this was a conversation he would not win. "I'll go get him." He murmurs instead.

His only response was a quiet exhale. He watches the way Izuku closes his eyes and clenches his fists against the fabric of the bedsheets. It's obvious that his charge was trying to avoid him noticing his nervousness, his frustration over the whole ordeal, but he was far too young and Naomasa was far too knowledgeable in body language to not take note.

Honestly, he shared some of the young teen's frustration as well.

At himself, for letting such an event happen, and at the man who caused this to occur. Once Naomasa was done with him, he'll make sure the bastard never saw the light of day again, at least until he was old and grey.

This silent promise didn't change things, though. It did not change the past, nor did it change the path they were now forced to take. Heart tightening in his chest, Naomasa wordlessly turns to the door; heading for the entrance.

Each step felt more and more heavy for the detective.

No matter what happens they will face it, Naomasa was certain of it. He was resilient; as for Izuku, the boy was nothing if not adaptable. He had to, with a Quirk like his.

He glances back one last time, taking note of the deep breath Izuku let out. The boy looked at him, blue wheels rotating slowly in his eye sockets. Midoriya was silent, but his gaze was enough to convey his reluctant acceptance.

Turning, Naomasa opened the door gently and peeked his head out.

"Toshi? Come in."

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

"Toshi? Come in."

He rises to his feet at the sound of the door opening. Naomasa's face was peeking out from behind the door, eyes sweeping over the hallway furtively before they returned to him. They were alone in the hall -the floor, even, as this section of the hospital was currently under quarantine and heavily guarded by the police- so there was no true need to do such a move.

For Toshinori, this gesture seemed like a recurring repetition the detective had grown to do unconsciously.

It spoke of habit.

Naomasa regards him for a moment, nods, and opens the door wider

Toshinori is only a step into the room when he catches sight of his friend's charge -and promptly feels like he's been punched in the gut.

No one could really blame him, given what he finds.

The last person he was expecting to see was a familiar small form sitting on a hospital bed, familiar mop of curly green hair shadowing a small, round face. For a moment he thinks he's mistaken -but then his own blue eyes meets slow, spinning blue and yes, this all but confirmed it.

It's the boy from the beach.

It takes Naomasa's sharp tug of his coat -dragging him into the room- to jolt him out of his stupor.

"You're…" The noise that leaves him is choked. He barely hears the sound of the door closing behind him.

Izuku Midoriya bows his head lightly, curls bouncing with the movement.

"Hello All Might," He's smiling at him, a small polite grin, though the waiver of his lips betrays his nervousness. "It's nice to meet you again." He says softly. As he spoke, those luminous eyes of his do that familiar odd little spin that leave no doubt that this was the boy who'd lend him an ear out of the blue.

Though, Toshinori was starting to doubt that encounter was random. The chances were just too slim for that.

"You're the boy from the beach." He knows he's stating the obvious, but his brain was still working overtime to absorb the information he'd just obtained.

And it explained _so much_ about their meeting, Toshinori wanted to smack himself over the head. He'd noticed the boy's oddities, but he'd waved them away like a fool.

The man on the phone, who'd almost stepped into traffic. The sudden change in route and Midoriya's quiet insistence of taking a specific route. The luck he'd had when that sludge villain practically handed himself over.

It all _fit._

"...did you plan on-?"

"He did." A voice interrupted, sounding miffed. Toshinori jolts slightly as he spies Naomasa glaring at the corner of his vision, the detective's lips pressed in a thin line as he stares down at the small teenager on the bed. "He went out to meet you. Unannounced, in fact."

Midoriya stares right back, unbothered. After a long moment that was more uncomfortable than it should be where Toshinori thinks he should speak up, the green haired teen replies:

"-how did you know about that?"

"The hospital informed me, like they're supposed to every time to take off." Naomasa answers, walking over to lean against one of the cupboards. "Just because I didn't have the opportunity to come and scold you right away doesn't mean I don't know what's going on, kid. I don't need your Quirk for that, a phone does the job."

Midoriya's lips curl into a wry smile. "Of course. And the phone probably behaves better, right?"

Naomasa huffs, but it lacks any offense. "Right on point."

"...I'm guessing you do that often?" Both blink, and for a brief moment Toshinori thinks they might just have forgotten he was here in their bickering. At least, their taken aback expressions seem to suggest that.

Midoriya makes a discrete little cough, cheeks reddening. "I'm sorry. We tend to get..huh...carried away. Naomasa tends to worry a lot." He apologizes, embarrassed. The boy looked like a kicked puppy in that moment and it took all of Toshinori's strength and will to keep himself from chuckling at the sight.

"Rightfully so." Naomasa pipes up, eyes never straying from the smallest member of the conversation.

Speaking of safety...a question in Toshinori's mind that popped up during young Midoriya's banter with Naomasa reared its head again. "So you're...using the hospital as a shield?" he wonders, eyes drifting between the detective and the teenager.

Midoriya's face spasm, grimacing. "No." He answers after a brief pause where Toshinori panickingly thought he'd managed to insult the boy. "...I'm not ...not really. This is just the most logical place someone in my condition would be." Midoriya admits, more softly. He doesn't sound that convinced of his own argument.

Toshinori frowns. "...condition?"

"Izuku's condition easily qualifies him for a permanent admission in the hospital. It's too dangerous for him to be without supervision." Naomasa speaks up, tone soft. "...and by condition, it's his Quirk...though as far as the hospital knows, it's due to brain damage because of an incident that occurred when he was five years old."

Toshinori flinches. _Brain damage..?_

Midoriya seems to have noticed his horrified expression, for he speaks up calmly: "That's just what they believe. It's part of the truth, but not all of it." He looks down at his lap; Toshinori spies the way he bites his lower lip. "...just enough that they'll keep me here permanently. Of course," There's a small, bitter chuckle. "...that doesn't matter. Can't do that anymore, can I? He knows where I am now."

 _He?_

He spies the way Naomasa tenses up, back straightening in attention. "As in?" The man presses, expression dark.

He doesn't sound surprised by his charge's declaration. There's something in his eyes that makes Toshinori wonder if the detective already in a way knows what Midoriya was going to say next. It makes his nonexistent stomach twist with apprehension.

"It was him." Midoriya answers, those strange eyes of him spinning twice more. "All for One, he was responsible for the kidnapping. He wants my Quirk."

 _Oh._ Toshinori feels surprise at the information, but it's quickly taken over by a familiar dark feeling well up within himself. Of course the man would want a Quirk like young Midoriya's. All for One was always on the lookout for interesting Quirks to steal and hoard like the monster he was.

But that left him wondering.

"If I may ask, what is your Quirk?" Toshinori pursues carefully.

A pause. Naomasa makes an odd little fidget from his spot, his unease clear.

"My Quirk," Midoriya tilts his head to look at him fully. His eyes make another of those strange spins that only affect the iris and what is left of the pupils. It's the strangest, most eerie thing Toshinori had ever seen but he can't look away. "-is called Omniscience. It does as it's name implies. I can see everything that happens, might be happening, could happen, and has happened."

Toshinori swallows.

"That's…"

 _Overpowered._

 _Too powerful._

 _Too_ _ **unreal**_ _of a Quirk to be possible._

"...is remarkable."

Midoriya chuckles. "Maybe to you. It does have a lot of downfalls though, so I can't say it's that incredible."

Toshinori frowns. As far as he can see, there were no downsides. "What do you mean by that?"

"His brain can only take so much of the information his Quirk gathers." Naomasa speaks up, voice quiet. "Human brains cannot process all of it. Most of the information he gathers doesn't make it past the prefrontal cortex. That's what deals with short term memory." Naomasa clarifies when he catches Toshinori's expression. The Pro-Hero must have looked pretty lost for the man to pick it up so quickly.

Clearing his throat, the detective continues:

"Very little of the information Izuku gets from Omniscience gets stored in long term memory, but that's not the real issue. The constant stream of knowledge _is_." Naomasa swallows, his eyes flicking down to the floor. Izuku shifts on the bed, hands curling around the bedcovers. He looks like he wants to say something, but there was something holding him back.

Toshinori doesn't like where this was going. As Naomasa's silence grows he shifts his attention fully to Midoriya, who wasn't looking at either of them.

Instead, the boy was looking out the open window. Sunlight was streaming in, lighting the bedcovers and the teen sitting in it. The beams of light caught his face as well, illuminating his hair and bringing out the inner glow of those strange blue irises.

It also highlighted the uniqueness of his eyes, the thinness of his neck and how long his fingers seemed, even though his hands were not particularly large. Somehow, the sight has Toshinori's insides grow cold with a slow, sickening realization.

Slowly, he asks. "...what happens when you overdo it?"

Blue eyes shift away from the window, pinning his own in place.

Now that Midoriya faced him fully, Toshinori could spy the little hits of green hiding at the edges of his irises. This detail however flies right out of his mind when the green-haired boy speaks next, voice flat...and somehow, in it's blandness, still sounded resigned:

"Brain hemorrhage."

The atmosphere in the room was stifling.

"...oh."

In his defence, there was very little Toshinori could say. What could he do, offer his condolences?

Midoriya waves him off. "It's alright."

The silence stretched on, uncomfortably tight.

Then Midoriya suddenly freezes and straightens up on the bed, eyes spinning wildly. His attempt at a detached, expressionless mask breaks under his surprise.

"Oh god." He mutters. His gaze flicks to Naomasa, narrowing to small, luminous slits. " _You didn't."_

Toshinori watches as his friend shrugs nonchalantly, nonplussed by the glare. What was going on?

"That took you awhile." The detective replied calmly, unperturbed by the glare Midoriya returned in response.

"I'm currently medicated. Screw you." The boy suddenly freezes again, a mortified noise leaving him as he whirls his head to look at Toshinori. It's at that moment that the pro-hero realized that the teen had accidentally forgotten him. "Crap, I'm sorry for my-"

Toshinori waves him off with a raised hand. "It's okay, I've heard worse."

A huff escapes the third inhabitant of the room. Naomasa was smirking. "You mean, you've _said_ worse."

Midoriya blinked, then turned to Toshinori questioningly. The innocent look of curiosity had him quickly spiralling into a panic because this was a kid who seemed to hold him in very high standards, he couldn't have that image ruined by this!

In that moment, Toshinori contemplated jumping out the window. He'll barely fit through and likely would have to send a repair bill to the hospital for the broken frame, but it was a worthy sacrifice if it meant preserving some of his image.

Stammering, he swallows. "H-hey, I-"

"They're almost here." Midoriya cut him off, shaking his head and glancing between Naomasa and the door. "Oh my god, I can't believe you did this. _Without telling me._ "

Toshinori turns his head to the detective, who looked somewhat pleased. Wait no, he was pleased; Naomasa was doing that tiny, lopsided smirk that he often did when he caught the scent of a promising lead or more often enough, of a well made coffee. "What is he talking about, Naomasa?"

"Toshi, I may have made some calls." Naomasa shrugged, standing up fully from his leaning position against the furniture. "So about that…"

Just as he's about to continue, the door swings open.

A woman stood at the threshold of the room. She was small with a slightly plump figure and a tired but relieved expression. Instantly, Toshinori notices her long hair and big, bright eyes, both a familiar shade of moss green that left little doubt that she was related to the boy he came to see.

He has only a fraction of a second to take her in when his attention was robbed by a smaller shape standing politely next to the woman, hands clasped behind his back and head held high. The stature, the nice business clothes and finally, the pale fur adorning the newcomer's body sealed the deal as identifiers, if the long tail waving behind him didn't.

It was the bane of his life, ender of all joy, Toshinori's master for the next year and likely for the foreseeable future if he had his way -Nedzu, the principal of Yuuei.

Behind him, Izuku makes a dying whale noise and nearly falls off his bed.

Naomasa is the only one close enough to catch him.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

" _You were right."_

From across the bar, he eyes the way the boy preens at the praise, chapped thin lips curled back into a low, almost satisfied grin. It's a unnerving sight, but nothing Kurogiri hadn't seen before.

Shigaraki wasn't really his responsibility; his only job was keeping the young man from killing the wrong person or getting discovered by the police. The man's loathsome behavior didn't impact his paycheck.

" _Hitting anyone listed with a foresight Quirk was a...interesting alternative solution. But well done, Tomura."_ There's a pause. " _...we finally have who we are looking for."_

The smirk on Shigaraki's lips drops out of sight.

"Not _have_." The young man hisses, gritting his teeth. "Not have. Cheater's not here. We don't have him, we just know who it is!"

Kurogiri is glad he doesn't have a human face, as he can keep his expression from showing his displeasure when Shigaraki digs his long, dirty nails into the smooth wood top of the bar. The counter top he'd only just finished cleaning.

If he had nostrils, he would be letting out a repressed exhale.

" _Which is more than we have ever had for the past two years."_ The voice reminded the irate teenager from the other end of the bar. Kurogiri turns his attention to the source of his boss' voice, setting the now clean glass down. The television on the wall flickers once, the words _sound only_ splayed on top of a background of static displayed on the screen. " _This wasn't a complete failure."_

This is when he decides to step in.

"No doubt All Might will make his move." Kurogiri reminds the two politely, crossing his hands on the counter top of his meticulously clean bar. "We will have to tread carefully. We still do not know the full range of Midoriya Izuku's powers."

Shigaraki grumbles under his breath, but falls silent when a soft sound escapes the television.

"...true, we don't. But that is the joy of it, no?" All for One drawls, tone wondering. "The unknown. The _potential_." Kurogiri did not miss the curious, almost wistful undertone. "A Quirk on the scale of Midoriya Izuku's is something that happens once in a century. It's an opportunity we _cannot_ miss."

Kurogiri pauses, mist flicking around him at the promise in his boss' voice. For someone who kept to the shadow and preferred resolving his problems through underlings or with his persuasion, there was no doubt in the portal user's mind that the man would raze hell of Midoriya Izuku was to be harmed to the point his Quirk would be unobtainable.

"I will not have it squandered by you, Tomura." "You did well, but you will be more careful. We might have an unlimited amount of criminals to use, but we will have very few openings from now on." "I have no doubt Yuuei will protect this child viciously."

Kurogiri frowns. "How do you know Yuuei will take him in?"

"Simple," Tomura suddenly interjects. Kurogiri turns to him in time to see the young man dump a newspaper on the table. "The liar will want the brat nearby."

 _ **All Might Takes On Teaching Position At Yuuei!**_

* * *

 **Naomasa and Izuku banter are best banter. Sleep deprived and caffeine addicted dad is the best dad.**

 **Boi, this took a while. Like, I was meant to finish it so much earlier but I got work finally so I'm working overtime on that and in between struggling with some personal stuff (aka bills) I was too stressed to finish this chapter. I feel really really bad but at the same time I'm glad I finished this finally.**

 **This story is particularly hard to write because even if I have a lot of the overarching stuff cleared out, Izuku's OP Quirk makes it hard to get the details right without it being bullshit or just leaving glaring plot holes bigger than the last four episodes of Darling In the Franxx.**

 **Yes, I watched that, yes, I'm mildly salty about it.**

 **PS: Inko ain't fat in this fic like in canon; it's implied that it was the result of Izuku being Quirkless and all the stress of being a single mom. In this fic I almost went the same route, but then I remember I made the Bakugo family closer to the Midoriya family and like HELL Mitsuki wasn't gonna slap plates out of Inko's hands and drag her to the grocery to eat healthy food. She got a support group here so she's a lot better.**

 **We'll see more of her next chapter, no worries~! As well as more explanation on Omniscience's drawbacks and how it really works!** **I worked real hard to really limit how OP it is, you'll see the main drawback next chapter :D**


	9. Chapter 9

He stares out the window, examining the sprawling greens and the glimmering blue on white of the buildings scattered across the grounds. It seemed to stretch on endlessly, this great expanse of land.

It's not the prettiest thing he'd seen -it shouldn't by all means be, these utilitarian buildings and wide acres of gravel and sand, but to Izuku this sight was much more than just what he could gaze. No, what amazed him and left him slightly forlorn was what it meant, to stand here and see the grounds of Yuuei from within the safety of the campus.

Even in his little room in the administration building, Izuku could see the Unforeseen Simulation Join in the distance, shiny blue dome glinting under the sunlight.

 _It's bigger than I imagined it to be._

Izuku looks over the rest of the campus he can see, lips pursing. Omniscience buzzes quietly at the back of his mind.

 _Everything is different in person._

The moving had been quick and relatively painless. Naomasa truly was a force to be reckoned with when he had a goal in mind; it took the detective less than three hours to whip the policemen into shape and coordinate his men and All Might into escorting Izuku to Yuuei grounds, where he would be safer than any other location they could provide under such short notice.

Still, he couldn't believe he was here.

Yuuei had been something he'd dreamed of for years. Something Omniscience always pressed into his skull on a daily basis, it's importance to the futures Izuku managed to remember clear as day. Even in the ever twisting, ever moving canvas of timelines that twisted and overlapped and suddenly broke off, Yuuei was always there.

For nearly all Izukus.

(Because there were times where his other selves were bitter and broken, too jagged by cruel words and an even crueler world to ever look at this establishment and feel some semblance of hope.)

And for him, stepping inside this campus had always been something that felt unattainable. Something he shouldn't ever think on less he let out the ugly, dark ball of emotions Izuku had always worked to keep tucked away. Omniscience's rapid uncontrolled growth and the consequence that brought on Izuku barred him from ever going into heroics.

So standing here _-living_ here, for the foreseeable future- felt like something right out of a dream.

 _Well,_ Izuku thinks, back straightening. He stares out the window, a surge of determination and bravery crawling up his belly and settling as warmth inside his chest the more he thought about everything ahead. _No backing out now._

A bird chirped in the distance.

 _I'll make the most of this._

Just as he thinks that, he hears the door open.

"You look like shit."

Izuku doesn't even bother fighting back the smile.

"...hi Kacchan."

The blond scoffed at his slow reply, closing the door behind him. He strolled across the room like he belonged, ultimately stopping to flop down next to Izuku on the sprawling couch tucked against the window.

A shiny white card dangling from his neck, gleaming under the afternoon sunlight. Izuku spies a name, a code and a picture of his friend that didn't do him justice with the squinted glare and uninterested expression -like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

Then again, Kacchan had never been one for taking pictures. Or making use of his good looks to Aunt Mitsuki's eternal pain. He'd inherited his mother's good looks and his father's affinity for clothing, but he never made use of it. Katsuki was much more fond of harsh words and a crackle of explosions from his palms to get his way.

On the other hand, Izuku was constantly in pajama pants and bare slippers.

Yeah, Auntie was disappointed in the both of them for sure.

Kacchan peers out the window, watching some staff walking down the path near the main building. They're too far away for either of them to discern whom the people were, regrettably.

"Didn't think I'd see it so soon." Kacchan admitted quietly.

"Hmm." Izuku hums, threading his fingers through the pillows. He leans to the side, bumping shoulders against the taller boy and settling there. The warmth was comforting despite how sunny it was out. "...didn't think I would see it at all."

Katsuki's calm expression faltered, which sent a bold of shame running down Izuku's spine.

"Don't be an idiot, idiot." Kacchan muttered, scarlet eyes turning away to look at Izuku. "You fucking deserve to be here, fucker." Katsuki reached out, one strong digit planting on Izuku's forehead with enough force to make him blink and stay silent. "Sure, you're a twig and like hell you'll be fighting villains anytime soon, but this is a far better place for your sorry ass than that hospital."

Izuku peered up at the finger between his eyes. "It worked." He tried lamely.

"Until some fucker got in in the middle of the night." Katsuki's quick response had Izuku flopping down on the couch and sinking into the pillows.

He's grateful for this couch. Nedzu really had an eye for detail, the man had probably seen his small chair by the window back in the hospital. Izuku nuzzles into the pillows, burrowing his face in their softness.

"Oi, nerd. I was talking."

"Hm…" Izuku mumbles through the fabric. "I'm listening."

"Like fuck you are." And with that he feels a calloused hand on his hair, tugging him up with gentle strength. Izuku yelps. He followed the not so gentle pull, hissing quietly at his companion.

"Kacchan!"

The grip is quickly relaxed on his poor hair, turning into a soft pet. Kacchan chuckles. "What do you think would happen if you ignored me, nerd?" The older boy says, a loopsided half not-smile on his lips. Not a smile, far from it, oh no, because _Bakugo fucking Katsuki doesn't smile shut up stupid Deku._ "Sit up. You look like matcha ice cream left out in the sun."

Izuku lifted a brow at that. Alright. Even with a foresight Quirk, he had no idea where that came from. Then again the inner mechanism of Kacchan's mind was a mystery to all but the blond himself.

"Matcha ice cream?" He finds himself giggling, sitting up on the couch. "Why so specific?"

Kacchan shrugs, hand sliding off his head.

"Because it's green like your dumb face." The blond says in a tone that made it seem like it was obvious. Honestly it was, now that Izuku thought about it-

Wait.

"Kacchan." Izuku squints. "My _hair_ is green."

The older teen shrugs and leans back on his seat, head tilting back to relieve sunlight on his face. His eyelids shut as he utters out softly. "Not from where I'm standing, you gremlin."

"...that doesn't make any sense."

Kacchan raises a hand in the air. He does a waving motion towards Izuku, who blinks confusedly. "Welcome to what it feels like talking to you 60% of the time."

Oh. Izuku fights down the urge to snort and instead does a little humming noise, knowing how irritating the other boy could find it. "Huh."

Kacchan lifted a single blond brow.

"What?"

"That's low."

Kacchan makes a hissing noise. "Oi, don't try upping that shit."

"I won't!" Izuku raises his hand defensively. "Besides, I probably won't be here for the next few days." He deflates, slumping closer to his best friend. Quietly, Izuku admits what he had been pondering over for the past few days since the hospital. "Headaches are happening more often."

Kacchan's expression promptly sours.

Izuku doesn't blame him. Headaches only meant one thing, when it came to him. Omniscience was going to pull him under -for a while, given the lack of slips lately.

Rarely he had the chance to brace for them. Most slips happened immediately, without warning -one moment he was here, the next Omniscience yanked the cloth over his eyes and he was falling, tumbling, gasping for air as the dam at the back of his mind broke and what he spent most of his conscious hours trying unsuccessfully to filter out before it overcame him came crashing down to sweep him into a torrent.

The absolute worst of the slips could last days.

Days of being there but not there, of being unaware of the passage of time as a human but rather feeling it in an intricate, metaphysical way that no human language could describe. Of having his mind jumping and snapping and being yanked around through several timelines, of his conscious being broken down to pieces and those shards were dropped in worlds similar or so different from his own.

Izuku shuddered just thinking about it.

As if sensing Izuku's fouling mood, Kacchan reaches up and scrambles his hair into an even messier bird's nest.

"Don't do that." Izuku grumbles, but it's half hearted as his mind was still elsewhere, shuddering at the prospect of his inevitable bed rest. "My hair's already a mess."

Kacchan merely snorts, half hearted and fond in a way he would never allow himself to be outside of his family -and what warmth it gave Izuku to know that. "I'll do it again and again until you realize how much of an anxious mess you are being, bug eyes."

Izuku squinted up at the taller boy, making a face at the nickname Kacchan hadn't really used since he was a kid. When times were simpler, and his pupils had been blue but his irises still bright green like his mother.

His piece said, Kacchan leans back into the couch. He stretches like a cat basking in sunlight, eyes sliding shut and huff leaving his lips. Izuku knows the conversation is over and so he scoots closer, pulling himself as close to his friend without risking ending up a sweaty mess because if Kacchan was known for his language, those who truly knew the blond would also know how sweaty he could get during the summer.

Izuku quickly finds the silence they fall into to be extremely comfortable.

He leans down, pressing his head against his friend's side. His eyes slide shut, squeezing as Omniscience writhes at the back of his skull like an undulating snake, whispering things he wishes he could not hear and yet he listens, attentive for any solid crumb of information.

 _All of this, for him._

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

He'd never thought he could be scared of someone who was barely taller than him, but Chiyo, as she told him to call her, was truly a terrifying person Izuku would rip his eyes out than to antagonize.

Chiyo Shuzenji was a true no nonsense kind of woman, her quick words and even quicker cane making terrifying weapons she knew how to use to their full potential. Even All Might seemed scared of her, shying away from the tiny elderly heroine the first time he'd come for a regular checkup, coincidentally at the same time Izuku had his.

Nedzu. Had to be.

Izuku had only met the principal once and he didn't even have to wrangle with Omniscience to know how much of a little schemer the man was.

"This is incredible," Recovery Girl's murmur brings Izuku away thoughts about Yuuei's director. He blinks, to which the eldery woman pushes him. "Stay still, dear. I need a clear visual for the camera."

Embarrassment tignes Izuku's cheeks red. He wants to nod, but moving would only attract the doctor's ire so he settles for a quiet apology.

"Right, sorry."

A grumbled hum is his only answer. He can't see Recovery Girl due to the giant lens in front of his only open eye, but Izuku's pretty sure she's not that mad.

 _Click._ With that Recovery Girl rolls the device away from where she'd all but pressed against Izuku's head and sets it on a nearby table.

He blinks multiple times, trying to focus his vision after having been told to not blink for so long.

"Everything good, dear?" Recovery asks over her shoulder. She's shuffling through papers and muttering under her breath words he could not catch -and likely, wouldn't even be able to spell.

Izuku goes to nod, then he nearly smacks himself because of course she wouldn't see it.

"I-I'm good!" He confirms, fidgeting on the bed. It might be childish, but he was getting a bit tired of sitting on those. They could be as comfortable as money could buy but that never changed the fact that staying still is something he hated. "Thank you, you didn't have to go through all this trouble."

As a child, when his Quirk was still budding and not the uncontrolled mess it was now, he'd found it torturous. Only a mixture of patience, visitors and some reflection had kept him from going insane. Now that he was older that impotent frustration had faded, shrinking to only a small puddle that would only swell in the worst days.

Recovery Girl snorts, dragging him out of his musing.

"Nonsense, child." She chimes, turning around. There's a small stack of papers in her hands; Omniscience does a familiar, odd lurch in his head, allowing Izuku to momentarily see what she was seeing.

He recognizes the titles and thus, the contents of the documents immediately.

"Is it done?" A voice calls out from the other side of the room reminding him that yeah, maybe he shouldn't forget that All Might

To be fair, the sight of the Symbol of Peace trying and failing to sit comfortably in a large chair that was still too small for the massive man was something Izuku tried to avoid, less he laugh at his idol. Which was the last thing he wanted and if he did well, he would take a page out of Kacchan's book and jump out a window.

The fact that his Quirk wasn't suited to catch him afterwards was just a bonus.

Recovery Girl sighs sharply in annoyance, turning up her nose at the younger Pro-Hero. "Stop your sputtering, boy! I'm almost there." She grumbles. "It's not everyday I get to examine someone with a Quirk on the scale of Midoriya!"

At the scolding, All Might ducks his head like a cowed child. The look really, really didn't fit a man of his stature, in Izuku's humble opinion.

"You don't have to stay here, All Might." "I'm sure you have a lot to do to get ready."

"It's alright, young Midoriya." The man says, waving him off with one hand. "I think I can spare a few minutes."

Izuku tuts softly. "Nedzu wants your teaching schedule on his desk by tonight, though. You should get on that." He reminds him none too gently.

"How-" The way All Might's face scrunches up was comical enough that Izuku had to muffle his laughter under a quiet cough. The Pro-Hero blinks, struck with a realization. He coughs. "Right. No worries, I'll get on that in a minute."

"Don't make him wait." Izuku tells him kindly, watching as Recovery Girl riffles through papers. "I'm sure he'll have some revisions to do, so the faster you do it the faster you're free of it."

It's strange how the gigantic man somehow manages to look so sheepish.

"Midoriya," Recovery Girl calls to him, diverting his attention to the school nurse. She was looking at him expectantly, papers still in hand. Izuku could guess a mile away without his Quirk what she was about to say. "-are you sure these papers are updated properly?"

 _There we go._

"They are." He reassures her, only making her frown further. "There's no mistakes on them, Miss." _I'm a mess and my medical history is evidence of it._

Recovery Girl makes a hissing noise through clenched teeth. It makes Izuku startle and All Might even flinched. Not that much, but enough to give him worry.

"None of that miss stuff! I'm not your teacher, I'm the one making sure you don't kneel over during your stay under my care." The elderly woman exclaims, scrutinizing him over her papers. Izuku just blinks, because well, who could argue with _that_. "Just call me Chiyo little one. I have a feeling we'll see each other often enough in the following months, so it's better to skip the formalities."

"O-oh are you alright with that? I can call you Recovery Girl if you'd like!"

"You're no student, boi. Nor some dunderhead hero-" Chiyo spared a narrowed glance at All Might. The man suddenly seemed very, very interested in a fruit fly zooming near the window. "...so just call me Chiyo. It will make things a lot easier."

Izuku can only nod quickly. If All Might was scared of this tiny little old lady, then he should be utterly terrified of her. Size did not matter -it was a wise old lesson he learned from the first time he angered his mother, and something everyone in their kindergarten had learned when one Bakugo Katsuki was introduced to the class. Those poor kids. The poor _teacher_.

It was a memory he looked back with fondness.

"Your pupils are extremely contracted and your irises have...have _holes_ in them." Chiyo falters, seemingly puzzled as she looked over his medical history and no doubt, that one diagram an enthusiastic ophthalmologist had done. Izuku kind of missed that man for his energetic attitude, but the way he chased any of his coworkers off from him every time they came to peer at him was kind of...terrifying. "Lots of fissures. I saw them while I was using the slit lamp but this is ridiculous."

"I have more, but you can't see them unless I go actively use my Quirk." Izuku chirps, a small, tiny, minuscule part of him that Kacchan definitively hadn't had any part in cultivating rejoicing at the look of sheer befuddlement in the nurse's eyes. "I'm getting more each year, apparently. Part of my Quirk going haywire.

Recovery Girl muttered something likely foul under her breath. Izuku didn't blaming her.

 _Pupilseption_ , some small part of Izuku that sounded disturbingly like Kacchan crackled in his head. Despite the sudden urge to giggle at the joke, Izuku wisely kept his mouth shut.

He didn't want a psych evaluation on top of things. Again.

"You really can't control it." All Might's voice snaps his attention to the man. The Pro-Hero was leaning forward, brows furrowed as his gaze shifted between Recovery Girl and Izuku. "...isn't that right? You mentioned something similar before."

"I could, as a child." Izuku admits, voice growing quieter as the memories briefly overtake him. "Not anymore." He grimaces, hands curling on his lap. "That was a long time ago. It just went...haywire. Kept activating over and over again until it just stopped turning off."

At this, the hero faltered. All Might's expression at his explanation was something Izuku was expecting. Pity was something he saw too often, and he had to look away. It was too uncomfortable, even though he'd been on the receiving end of this far more than he could count.

"-which brings up the dilemma of classification."

"It's Emitter."

Recovery Girl purses her lips. "By the way it transformed, it should be Mutant."

"Still Emitter." Izuku denied, shaking his head gently to avoid aggravating his headache. The nurse had given him painkillers for it, but Omniscience as always decided to mostly disregard them. "I could control it. Then I can't. Emitter-Regressor drugs work on it."

Recovery Girl makes a face. It's not a nice one. "That...should not be possible."

Izuku shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, Omniscience stopped trying to split my head in half after the shot, so I'm guessing it did." He maintained, fiddling with his pants to smooth out the wrinkles,

He's wearing some comfy, dark baggy pants that he often used as a pajama even though Kacchan had stressed they were workout clothes, and he should use it when he could given that he was, to quote, 'a goddamn noodle'. It was a nice gift from Auntie Mitsuki.

"Then it could be a transformative Quirk." Recovery Girl muttered, tapping her fingers against the edge of her clipboard. She was spreading the papers on her desk; Izuku really, really didn't like where this was going. He didn't want the poor woman spending night after night trying to figure out the craziness that was his Quirk. "The gradual transformation of your eyes, it could be the result of a maturation process."

Good, but that was already theorized. Izuku was pretty sure it was around the fifteenth page of his medical history. The particular doctor for that one had a mild crisis over his case. Not fun times.

"...it's still Emitter."

Recover Girl turns around, glaring. Izuku shrinks back on the bed because oh, that is a look he recognizes very well. That's the look of someone on the border of A: an existential crisis or B: about to lose it on him.

And just as he thinks that, All Might decides to stretch his neck out and pipe in:

"I have to agree with him."

Recovery Girl promptly reaches for her cane.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Later, when Recovery Girl throws her hands up and throws them both out, Izuku finds himself standing outside the infirmary wing with one of the tallest men he'd ever seen.

"So," All Might begins, remarkably awkward for a man who could likely bench press a bus. Izuku stares up at him, waiting. "Do you want me to accompany you, young Midoriya?"

Izuku considers it for a moment.

Spending time with All Might would be fun…

But at the same time, he doesn't want to. Exhaustion tugged at his limbs; it's a familiar one. The one that served as warning before Omniscience decided to yank him under without mercy.

At least he's not dropping without warning. Those are the ones Izuku hated the most. Just snap, hours or days lost unexpectedly with no way to prevent them.

"No," he finally decides, looking up to smile at the man kindly. "I'll be fine. You have your curriculum to work on. The living quarters aren't that far away." Which wasn't a lie, since Nedzu had given him a room in the teacher's building, where staff would live permanently if they so wished.

All Might coughs. "Right!" He says cheerfully, hands on his hips, but there's a slightly terrified gleam in his eyes that made Izuku chuckle internally. "I must work on that, you are correct young Midoriya! I shouldn't keep dear Nedzu waiting."

Izuku soberly nods.

"Nope. You really don't."

All Might seems to fail to repress a shudder. Izuku spots a single bead of sweat roll down the side of the man's face.

They exchange goodbyes quickly before the man rushes away, no doubt fearing the wrath of his employer should he fail to do what he was hired to do. Izuku knows teaching isn't fully the reason why he's at Yuuei, but it seems that All Might was taking his cover very importantly.

No doubt that a man like him would do his best as a teacher, even while looking for a successor.

Omniscience twists like a coil about to spring at the back of his head, familiar images passing in front of his eyes.

A street bathed in the golden yellow rays of a setting sun. Great sakura trees gently blowing in the wind. The feeling of wearing damp, cold clothing. The wetness on his eyes.

Two dark eyes staring at him, hands curled into fists. White shirt swaying in the breeze, exposing scarred skin.

' _You can become a hero.'_

Mood souring, Izuku turns around and starts making his way to his new home. As he walks, he's very much aware of how one of his legs weighted more than the other.

Nedzu had gifted him a sensor integrated into an ankle monitor. It was a dark, slim metal band, noticeable under clothing. He'd thought about having it on his wrists instead, but the ankles were a secure spot that villains wouldn't look at right away.

Hopefully this won't ever be needed, Nedzu had told him after the monitor clicked shut around Izuku's ankle. But we never know, so this is insurance.

Izuku rotates the ankle that has the monitor gently, feeling it's faint weight. It could be considered extreme, even barbaric, to put a device like this on him -a device meant for villains on probation, no doubt but Izuku found a strange sense of safety in what many would consider a breach of privacy.

It was for his own good, after all.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 _Alright, maybe I shouldn't be doing this...then again, Kacchan would be proud._

Izuku falters.

 _Well, no,_ he finds himself arguing back at himself which, to be fair, was far from a healthy sign. _A tower and a dragon, that's what's in store for me if shit happens._

A cruel little dark thought swamp past his eyes. That yeah, maybe Kacchan wouldn't be happy about him exploring alone, but that was if something happens. And given the fact he was in Yuuei? There was little threat in the way of Izuku's curiosity.

Besides, he's pretty sure Kacchan would accompany him if he knew. But unfortunately for his friend, he could not as there was a little tiny despicable thing called _school_ that he was forced to attend if he wanted good grades and thus, a shot for a seat in the very establishment Izuku was aimlessly walking through.

...good god, he still can't believe he's here-

As he turns around a corner, he finds a yellow caterpillar on the floor.

Izuku stares.

After a moment, he closes his eyes. Hard. Then he opens them again.

Nope, the yellow blob was still there. Though now that he looked at it more carefully, it wasn't a blob or a caterpillar or whatever his aching head had managed to conjure up. It was a sleeping bag, a rather old one at that. A faded yellow color, it's slight wear and tear spoke of long use.

For a moment, he considers that the brain damage finally caught up to him and he was hallucinating.

...then he remembers a few flashes from Omniscience about a yellow sleeping bag, and he's pretty certain that it's this specific yellow sleeping bag. And he knows what is contained in that bag. Does he really want to poke that sleeping bear?

Well.

Fuck it, he lives only once.

 _Channel that inner Kacchan,_ he thinks a bit ridiculously as he approaches the sleeping bag. Placing a hand on the top, he pokes at it once.

Silence.

A bit more courageous -and mildly worried for the mental state of the person who decided sleeping in the middle of the hallway of a school was a good, sound idea- Izuku grips the edge of the sleeping bag and pulls, rolling it over.

He's faced with the opening of the bag.

It's a man that was sleeping in it, his head and messing dark hair being the only thing peeking out from out the sleeping bag.. He has a bit of stubble and his eyes were open.

Wait.

His eyes _were open._

"Eraserhead!" Izuku recoils with a yelp, falling on his ass.

Before his eyes the yellow sleeping bag wiggles, and inch by inch the man stands up with a smoothness that only spoke of practice, the thick sleeping gear sliding off him with almost unnatural grace. He's wearing his hero suit underneath, a pair of blank pants and shirt with a long, pale grey scarf that hung heavy around his shoulders.

"You're the Sybil." The man -Eraserhead- denotes flatly. He bends down to pick up his bag like it's normal -oh he likes this man already- then regards Izuku again. "The boy with the foresight Quirk. Nedzu had a meeting about you."

Oh, well that was touching. At least introductions would be mostly off the table.

He sucked at those.

"And you're Aizawa Shouta. Eraserhead." Izuku breathes, somehow finding himself fascinated with this ragged, unkempt, sleep deprived man because he knew what he could do. Then again Kacchan was his best friend and was, to quote the boy's own _mother_ , a literal gremlin. So maybe Izuku had bad taste in the people he admired. Except All Might. And maybe Naomasa. That last one really depended on if the man

Wait. His mouth was still moving on his own.

"-you're an underground hero that can erase Emitter and Transformation-type Quirks!"

The man blinks at the verbal garbage he was spewing out.

"You've seen it." The underground hero guessed.

Logical, but nope. Very close to the truth, though. At least in a literal sense.

"Yes. On tv." Eraserhead blinks again, faltering, clearly not expecting this response. "I don't need to use my Quirk for that. You never use it on Mutant types."

"You've seen me. On television." The man repeats flatly, unimpressed. Then, he frowned and pointed something out that Izuku knew was coming. "Media isn't allowed to record my fights."

"Your internship days." Izuku chirps in response. "I dug them up. Internet."

The man just scowls in response. Izuku can see the reflection of his own, bright blue eyes on his red ones. It makes almost a mixture of purple in Eraserhead's eyes. What an oddity.

"What kind of Quirk is it?" The Yuuei teacher asks, startling him with the question. He clears his throat. "Your Foresight Quirk." He asks more specifically, examining him intently -especially his big, blue eyes.

Izuku instantly has an idea what he's going for. A mixture of excitement and worry claws at his gut, fighting to overtake the other.

If it _worked-_

"Emitter. I...huh...do you want to try and erase it?" The green haired boy asks, anxious.

"Depends. I've heard from Nedzu that you can't control it." Eraserheads says, eyes narrowing slightly. It brought out the massive dark circles around his eyes even more, making the man look kind of like a sleep deprived raccoon. "Is it really Emitter?"

"Yup." Izuku nods, shuffling in place. Nervousness buzzes under his skin like a thousand restless ants. "So, can we-"

Eraserhead's eyes flash scarlet, startling him into silence. At the same time, Omniscience goes abruptly silent, snuffed out like a candle in the wind.

Izuku freezes.

Quiet.

For the first time since his youth, his head was all _quiet_. Not a noise, not a peep, just his own thoughts.

...wait.

...no, it's not. He looks down at the floor frowning as he can feel Omniscience humming, just much more quietly now. The sound was building up though, steadily crawling back to the familiar stream of information that made his headache pulse.

 _Well, that didn't work. So much for that._ '

Even more annoyingly, there was something wet dripping down his face. He was crying. Instinctively Izuku reaches up, touching his left cheek and pulled away to look at it. It's warm, was he really crying in front of-

Red greets him, dripping slick and warm down his fingers.

"Oh." He murmurs, looking up at Eraserhead, who's eyes had gotten considerably, alarmingly wider and his expression was far more panicked than Izuku was comfortable seeing on a Pro-Hero.

Fortunately he didn't have to witness the underground hero's panic for much longer, as his tiny noise of surprise was as far as he got before Izuku feels his eyes roll back and his legs give out under him.

* * *

 **Aizawa: *uses Erasure ***

 **Omniscience:**

 **Omniscience:**

 **Omniscience:** _ **biTCH.**_

 **I had such a giggle about the way I designed this scene.**

 **Next chapter:**

 **Entrance Exams! Oh and some mama Midoriya. Aizawa, you might need to run.**


	10. Chapter 10

"He's doing better today. The readings are consistent with what is on file."

A sigh echoed through the room, piercing through the thick silence.

"Thank you. It's good to know."

The shuffling of papers feels oddly loud to Aizawa's ears.

"Right. Nevertheless, I'm afraid I don't know when he would wake up."

Midoriya Inko scowls.

He eyed her dubiously from the corner of his eyes. Aizawa wouldn't fault the woman for having such an expression. _Especially_ when it was directed at him.

It was, after all, his fault that her son had fallen into a coma two days ago after spontaneously hemorrhaging from his eye sockets.

His ears still don't quite feel the same since she'd shown up about an hour after Midoriya was readmitted to the infirmary _-for god's sake, he just left Eraserhead!-_ to Recovery Girl's care. Now she was playing the sad mother card, which did not help with the shame he was feeling.

Deserved, but still. It was ...uncomfortable.

"That's quite alright, Recovery Girl." Ms. Midoriya tells the nurse, her eyes fixed on her child. "Izuku's Quirk has always been... _inconsistent_...when it comes to how it reacts to things."

Aizawa feels the same, familiar flare of irritation -guilt- swell within him at her words. He's not sure if she did it purposely. It didn't matter in the end. What mattered was the end result -and that was the boy he had been keeping watch over during the past two days with little break.

Midoriya Izuku looked awfully pale and limp as he laid on his new bed. The child was tucked under a mountain of blankets, with only his head and his arms peeking out from the thick covers. His eyes were closed, of course, and his green hair hung in disarray around his face. The dark emerald locks were starting to get a bit shiny from grease. He would likely need them washed soon -something that he would do when he woke up, or something his mother would have to do for him if he did not wake in the near future.

The skin around his eyes was still the slightest bit puffy, and he had dark eyebags. Aizawa was certain that if one of them forced the boy's eyelids open, they would be treated with the sight of horribly bloodshot eyes.

How was he so certain? He'd seen them just a scant few hours before when Recovery Girl had done her regular checkup.

 _This is a mess..._

"It shouldn't have resisted Erasure." Aizawa hears himself mutter, cutting in between the women's conversation.

It's not the first time he says it. He'd said it plenty when he'd rushed Midoriya to the infirmary, and said it plenty more when All Might and Nedzu came rushing in through the infirmary door like missiles, the principal hanging from the Pro-Hero's left shoulder.

It's his only defence -not even an argument in truth, for Aizawa had taken full blame for what happened. To use his Quirk on a child with an unstable Quirk had been one of the dumbest things he'd done in a long time. Even if he hadn't expected the blood dripping like rivers down the boy's face from those luminous, ethereal eyes or the way he'd fell like a doll whom's strings had been cut, it still fell on him.

Then, he'd been the adult in the room.

Aizawa was mature enough to take the blame. That did not mean he liked it though. Especially when what happened flew directly against logic.

 _Erasure never did this before._

"And yet it did." Ms. Midoriya cut him off with that single, flat statement. She looks at him with verdant green eyes that felt decades old and brimming with wisdom.

How strong much she be, he wonders, to endure all of this?

"You have an idea why?" Aizawa asks, though it's half hearted.

The only conscious Midoriya chuckles from where she's sitting opposite him, holding onto her son's arm. "You'll find that my son's Quirk hardly ever listens to anyone, not even its owner."

"It's not sentient, though." Recovery Girl intervenes from where she'd sprawled herself on the couch by the window, her equipment spread out on the low table in front of her. "It would be on record, I'm sure."

"No, it's not. Any specialist we consulted will tell you the same. " Ms. Midoriya replies, shaking her head faintly. "But Omniscience doesn't follow the rules set out by most Quirk research." The young mother continues, her voice soft. Despite the low, reassuring tone, there was something there -a certain steel in her tone that spoke of what must have been a terrible time of her life. "It used to activate at will like an Emitter, it first appeared like a Transformation type, and then changed my son's eye structure nigh permanently like a Mutant Quirk."

Aizawa raises raises a brow, but says nothing.

"...and even if this would demand the changing of its type on file, only Emitter suppression drugs work on it." Recovery Girl says, almost sullen. The nurse was not liking this information _-that makes two of us,_ Aizawa thinks.

huffs. "You read all of his file?"

"All eighty four pages of it. Good god," Recovery Girl exhales, and Aizawa jolts because he did not just hear that, _how was that even-_ "...what is your kid made of?"

Ms. Midoriya laughs. It's light and airy and feels just the slightest bit bitter. Aizawa doesn't miss the way her hand tightens on her son's limp, pale arm, as if she was trying to reassure him that she was there. Or maybe she herself was trying to find some comfort in his presence.

It really didn't help the shame swirling low in his guts.

"I don't know." She says after her fit. Then, more quietly. "I really don't know." She shakes her head. "No one really knows."

Aizawa shifts in his seat. He says nothing. Somewhere by the window, Recovery Girl turns a page. The sound of the moving paper is uncomfortably loud in the quiet room.

"...did you know he thought he was Quirkless?" Ms. Midoriya suddenly spoke up after a long time, looking directly at him.

"No, I did not." Aizawa replies, though it's obvious.

Ms. Midoriya knows that too, for she smiles.

"He was one of the last kids in his class to get his Quirk. The pressure was very real then. He spent hours in front of a mirror trying to move things with his mind or attempting to breathe fire." Aizawa blinks at this, and the mother notices his confusion. "That's my ex-husband's Quirk. Anyways…"

She swallows. Some of the shine in her eyes darkens.

"And then one day he comes running to me and his eyes are glowing." Ms. Midoriya continues, lost in her thoughts. "Like little fireflies. Katsuki always called him Bug Eyes because of that. He stopped after he made Izuku cry."

Aizawa had no idea who this Katsuki was, but he sounded like an imbecile kid that needed some discipline. Then again as a teacher he knew just how horrible kids could get.

"Izuku took to his Quirk like a duck to water." Ms. Midoriya said fondly.

Then her expression changes. It grows darker, more closed off. _There it is,_ Aizawa thinks.

"...but Omniscience didn't return the favor." Ms. Midoriya finished, her voice low.

Cold crawls up Aizawa's back. There's a lot of pain in the way she said it. A lot of grief. A lot of untold stories and close calls.

As if sensing his stare, she looks away from her son to hold his gaze. In truth, it feels like she was grabbing his attention, keeping it pinned on him and the child laid out between them, deeply asleep.

"My son's done a lot of good. He'll keep doing a lot of good." Ms. Midoriya smiles, but it's not as happy as one would expect if the woman was proud of her son's achievement. Not Aizawa, though -he can see through the facade, the weariness hiding behind those green orbs and the early wrinkles that began popping in on her otherwise youthful face. "I just wish he would slow down and take care of himself more. He tends to be uncaring towards his own health."

"The hypocrite." Chiyo puffs out a breath. Ms. Midoriya laughs.

Aizwa had nearly forgotten that the Pro-Hero nurse was there. He glances at the woman, noting that she had her face nearly smashed into a copy of Midoriya Izuku's medical record. There's pens and markers on the low table, along with a notepad that must have seen better days. There's chicken scratches all over it.

As ever, the Yuuei nurse took her work to heart.

Exhaling, Aizawa turns his gaze back to the child on the bed.

Begrudgingly, he was starting to feel a sense of responsibility towards this brat. Not just due to what happened, or the fact he didn't leave this room often enough so Aizawa was starting to believe the Stockholn syndrome was kicking in.

In truth, Midoriya Inko's tale had revealed much about the young boy on the bed in front of him, more so than anything Nedzu had told the Yuuei staff. For such an age, the fact that he worked so hard and done so much with such a glaring weakness…

...it spoke of his resourcefulness. Of his bravery. Of his stubbornness.

It was a real shame he could never be a hero. Aizwa wouldn't be above taking the boy under his wing if so. There was a lot of potential in that tiny body.

Midoriya Izuku _was_ something else.

 _I'll have to keep a good eye on this one, aren't I?_

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 _green on all sides, darkness at his back_

 _fire, bright and blue, all around him_

" _-you love too much-"_

 _why were they running?_

 _a face without eyes, reaching for his_

 _**"Next, it's your turn."**_

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

He wakes up to the most well behaved Omniscience has been in weeks.

For a good few minutes Izuku can only lay there, staring up at the familiar ceiling of his new bedroom. His Quirk was humming low at the back of his eyes, an unpleasant but far more tolerable than usual pressure against his eyeballs. It was a nice feeling, not feeling like his eyes were about to pop out of his skull.

It's the kind of feeling that he would only feel after a long slip. He felt frazzled and off balance, but this -it was better than it had ever been in a while.

 _So, that happened._

"About time."

The voice is familiar in its irritability. Izuku tilts his head to his left, sitting up from his lying position on the bed. Recovery Girl holds his stare with a smoldering glare that had him fighting the urge to grab the covers and hide.

Guessing, he muses out loud somberly:

"...Erasure didn't work."

Somehow Recover Girl fixes him in place with an even _sterner_ glare.

"No, it did not." The nurse said snappishly, eyes narrowing. "And you're not doing that again. Ever."

Izuku winces, remembering the event. The warmth he'd felt inside his eye sockets at the blood dripping out of them was a sensation he preferred to not think about. He coughs awkwardly, then clears his throat.

"Don't worry," He reassures her. "-it's not often that I'm in the mood for internal brain hemorrhages."

The loud _twuack_ of the papers she was holding dropping on the low table had him wilting back on the inside. Oh. Oh boy. He was going to get it. If he wasn't a patient he was sure the little old woman would try choking him out.

 _Do I deserve it? Yes. Yes I did._

"...you're far too familiar with those words for a kid like you." Chiyo hisses. "What you did was far beyond reckless. Asking Aizawa to do such a thing without consulting me first?"

Izuku winces again, replying defensively. "I thought it could work!"

"Since when does your Quirk _ever_ follow the rules established by decades of research?!"

She...has a point there.

"...r-right." He says, dejected. "You're right. I'm sorry."

Chiyo flares her nostrils. "You better be." The elderly woman replies, standing up. Grabbing her cane, she ambles over to the side of his bed. Her mighty cane was lifted off the ground and for a moment Izuku thought she would actually smack him with it, but she merely gestures the empty single couch by his bed.

Izuku follows her pointer.

"Three whole days." The nurse tells him flatly. "Poor Aizawa ran himself ragged watching over you. Be glad that President Mic managed to convince him to take Friday off."

Izuku feels himself freeze. Friday. _Friday._

That wasn't right. Wasn't it...no she couldn't have said that, could she?

"...today...today is _Friday_?"

"...yes?"

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

The conversation with Recovery Girl goes as well as expected. And by that, it meant that the school nurse categorically put her foot down.

"Absolutely not!"

"Oh, please!"

"Midoriya! You're sick, you're not going _anywhere_!" Did the woman _hiss_ at him?

"I'm not sick, I'm going to go see the Entrance Exam!"

"No you're not!" Recovery Girl stomps over towards him as he starts to put a foot on the floor. Oh, she was going to hit him with the cane, he's certain of it. "Oi! Get back on the bed!"

Izuku scrambles to extend his arms forward and block Recovery Girl's approach -which she does, thankfully. Through her purple glasses the woman was absolutely glaring at him.

How can someone this small be so terrifying?!

"Please!" He begs, turning pleading eyes to the nurse. "My best friend Kacchan is going into Heroics, I want to see him compete!" Izuku tries, attempting to appeal to her emotions.

"We'll get you a recording then." Chiyo says dismissively, irritated. She jerks her head towards the bed. "You're staying in that bed. That's final!"

A cough echoes through the room, silencing them both.

"Am ...am I interrupting something?"

The next words got lodged in Izuku's throat. Oh.

All Might was standing in the doorway, peeking his head through into the room. The man looks mildly concerned as he gazed at the two of them.

Izuku hadn't even heard the door open. He's sure he looks pretty ridiculous with one foot on the ground and half his body still in the bed, arms extended to appease the thunderous gremlin that was the school nurse.

"All Might!" He yelps, smiling at the Pro-Hero. "Why are you here?"

The man returns his grin with one of his own, though there was still a sizable amount of concern and just the tiniest, tiniest bit of fear in his eyes as he stepped forward, the door closing behind him.

"I wanted to check up on you today before the Exams!" The Pro-Hero explained, putting his hands on his hips. The grin he gives Izuku is wide and full of teeth. "I'll be one of the judges, you see!"

"Oh, that's...good." Izuku, try as he might, could not find himself being happy.

Not with Recovery Girl fuming at his side.

It didn't matter what she thought, he had to go. It was a one in a lifetime opportunity. He wouldn't forgive himself if he missed the exam. He'd seen so many possibilities over the years, so many alternatives, so many people that missing or there that it left his head spinning.

To actually see it, in the flesh, was something Izuku yearned for more than anything else.

All Might seems to pick up on his lack of enthusiasm. His expression shift, less of that blinding smile that he'd seen so many times as a child and more of a befuddled frown.

Recovery Girl's cough stops the man from addressing it.

"Now that you're here," The nurse begins, waving her cane at the hero -who instinctively shies away from the stick of doom. "You can help me convince Midoriya that getting up after three days in bed is a foolish, _foolish_ idea!"

All Might open his mouth and Izuku's heart drops even further, leading to him sagging against the bed. If _he_ thought it was a bad idea, then maybe it really was...

-but suddenly the hero closes his mouth.

Then opens it. Then closes it again and wilts in a way no man as tall and buff as him should be able to. The conflict in his eyes and the hesitation told them everything they needed to know.

"...I.."

Recovery Girl flared his nostrils. "You have to be kidding me."

Izuku was sincerely surprised that there wasn't smoke coming out of them. If Kacchan ever locked him in a tower, he had now a dragon to put at the base. God, he's happy they haven't met yet. It was going to be terrifying.

For the sake of his own sanity, maybe keeping them apart would be the most viable option.

"...well," All Might begins, hesitating as they both catch the way Chiyo's old, wrinkly hand tightens threateningly over the top of her cane. "In truth, Nedzu wanted to have you there to see the exams with the rest of us but after what happened-"

Chiyo made a sound that would put an angry rattlesnake to shame. All Might fixes his eyes on her, like he was expecting the elderly woman to strike. Izuku does not blame him for such a reaction.

"...b-but, we thought young Midoriya wouldn't wake up in time for the exams!" All Might stuttered, turning blue eyes to Izuku. "However, I'm glad to see you're alright!"

Izuku feels a bit of his enthusiasm return at the sight of another smile. The sheer energy coming off the man gave him strength, somehow.

"The sun's up. Shouldn't it have started already?" He asks, hesitant.

All Might nods quickly enough to make his hair bounce. It makes him look like a bunny. A very big golden bunny.

"In an hour, actually! They're taking the writing section right now!"

Izuku nearly gives himself whiplash, so fast he turns pleading eyes towards Recovery Girl.

Chiyo takes one look at his hopeful, innocent eyes and scowls. "No."

"Please."

"No."

"I'm sneaking out the moment you turn your back." _Ha, take that hospital! I knew my training would come in handy one day!_

He could hear his past doctors and nurses crying from here. Actually, he was pretty sure they were still throwing a party because he left. In all likelihood, he was responsible for at least 40% of all of their early grey hairs.

Recovery Girl makes a face. "I'm staying here for the day anyways."

"Not if students get injured." Izuku piped up in response.

Chiyo glares. It's something fearsome. Izuku's lips attempt a wobbled smile that hopefully, wasn't all too smug. He knew he got her there. There was no way she could at two places at one time after all. Well, she could bring him with her to the infirmary, but as long as she didn't get that idea Izuku was safe.

Nervousness ate at him; he feels his eyes do a couple of spins in response. Omniscience wasn't all that loud since he'd woken up. It was nice. An approximation of what being normal must be like. This calm state after a long slip would dissipate in a couple of hours, however.

It always did.

After a long, stretching pause, Recovery Girl's shoulders drop and the dreaded cane tucked against her. She leans on it, lips pinched.

"Fine."

 _Yes!_ Izuku nearly yells it out loud, but he's certain that would be enough for the nurse to backpedal and chain him to his bed. Now that wouldn't do, not at all. It's not often he got some minuscule peace of mind from Omniscience, and today of all days? It was heaven.

"You're staying with the boy at all times." Chiyo demands with a hard edge, turning narrowed eyes to All Might. " And he can't be moving too much. He's still weak."

"Not a problem!"

Izuku blinks at the unexpectedly quick response. _Wait, what does he mean by not a problem-_

The next thing he knows, he's up a few feet in the air. He flails for a moment, suspended in the air -before landing with an oomph in a pair of massive arms.

"Too tall!" The yipp that leaves his lips in nothing but dignified. "This is weird!"

All Might merely laughs and adjust his grip on him. "Nonsense! We'll get there faster this way!"

"Yes well-!"

He stops, at a loss of suitable words. Izuku wanted to grimace. _It's the principle!_ He wanted to tell the man. _I'm not supposed to be this tall!_

Wait.

"...fine! Let's go then!" He says with more force, pointing towards the door. Izuku wiggles like a demented worm in the hero's arms. "Kacchan's going to start his exam soon and I am _**not**_ going to miss it!"

"Alright, alright!" All Might turned his head to the third person in the room, smiling broadly. "Have a nice day, Recovery Girl!"

From the safety of being out of reach from the demon wearing a nurse's attire, Izuku waves at the woman. "Bye Chiyo!"

Recovery Girl glares. She's far from amused.

"You're both going to give me heart problems by the end of the year."

Izuku has the foresight to not say anything in response. Not like he could have a comeback to that. At least not one that would lead to the woman changing her mind.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, All Might heads through the door. His pace his blinding and the only thinking Izuku can do is hang on and try to keep his eyelids low so the wind didn't dry his eyes out. Hallways went speeding by, and if he could open his mouth without risking swallowing a fly he would have cheered.

This was the fastest he'd ever moved in his life.

Izuku knew must look ridiculous -he certainly does _feel_ like it, swept up in All Might's arms like those rescued civilians out of those ridiculous movies he used to watch with his mom as a kid.

Oh, who cared. His dignity had flown out the window a long time ago.

Besides, he had an exam to see and people to meet!

* * *

 **Lowkey half the chapter is Recovery Girl throwing shade.**

 **If you want an actual, logical, realistic in-canon explanation why Omniscience managed to resist Erasure even though its an Emitter type, this is all I can come up with:**

 **Erasure: You're supposed to deactivate-!**

 **Omniscience YoU'Re SuPPoSEd tO DeACtIVaTe-!**

 **I am not a good writer lol.**

 **Next Chapter:**

" **You're staying with the boy at all times."**

 **...yeah, Izuku ain't about that.**

 **Let's take bets at how fast All Might loses the problem child … and Shinsou would like in on that betting pool guys.**


	11. Chapter 11

**...yes, this fic lives. To be fair I have like 10+ other fics running and this guy needs a delicate touch, so...whoops? I wanted to cut this to release earlier but I decided no, I'm gonna sit down and do this properly, AND I managed to get a head start on the next chapter that is gonna be pretty satisfying : )**

 **I got lazy with the chapter title btw. I'm 3 coffees and a gutted fish early in the morning so I'm far from exactly sane.**

 **...don't ask.**

* * *

They get there with a good twenty minutes to spare.

Toshinori is extremely careful as he runs to the administration building, taking care to use alternative routes to not interfere with the young hopeful would-be heroes preparing to take their Entrance Exam. The towering structure overlooked the battlegrounds where the physical test was about to take place and was where the staff were getting ready to evaluate the exam.

Midoriya is quiet in his arms but he can feel the way the young boy was buzzing with excitement, stubbornly trying to lift his head up to look around and take in the sight. Thankfully he was physically unable to due to Toshinori's hand holding his head down, protecting his spine from the whiplash moving at such high speeds produced.

Soon enough they're through the doors of the building. Toshinori slows down considerably, One for All simmering down in his veins like the sea after a storm.

"Here we are, young Midoriya!" He declares, slowly to a jog as he heads up the stairs, too buzzed to use the elevator when he could do it twice as fast using the stairs. "It should start within the next twenty to thirty minutes, good thing we are on time!"

"That's good!" Midoriya pauses, hesitating. "Can we do a quick stop?" He suddenly asks, shifting in his arms.

His eyes make that odd little spin once, then again. Then thrice more, quickly enough. It's not the first time Toshinori sees Midoriya's Quirk doing that but it still tears his attention away from the boy's declaration.

When he recognizes what the young teenager was saying, he balks a bit.

"We don't have much time-"

"It's just a quick restroom stop."

Toshinori falters.

Oh.

Whoops.

"C-certainly!" He declares, realizing that the poor child had spent the better part of the last few days in bed rest and Toshinori had his fair share of hospital stays to know what it did on one's poor body. He turns around, looking for a sign. "Here, I think it's over there!" Toshinori declares, taking a step down the hall.

Midoriya tilts his head in the opposite direction. His eyes do another looped spin as he lifts his finger, points down a hallway and turns back to Toshinori.

"That way, actually."

Toshinori chuckles and does as asked. It's easy to find the bathroom; Midoriya slides out of his arms, hopping to the floor and stretching his limbs for a moment before heading inside with a quick thank you.

There's nothing for Toshinori to do but wait, so that's what he does. Resting against the outwards window of the hallway, back to the bathroom, he waits quietly.

For the next minute, and the one after that. And the one after that. And the third one after that. Time slowly trickles by and he can't help but feel a mixture of confusion and embarrassment.

He doesn't want to come in and ask for fear of embarrassing the child, so Toshinori keeps waiting.

And waiting.

Until _finally_ , just when he was really starting to consider going in, he hears a pair of small footsteps. All Might turns around, smiling as he looks at the restroom door -which was firmly closed shut. And Midoriya was standing next to it.

Toshinori blinks. Midoriya blinks back, eyes spinning thrice. His hair is messier than Toshinori remembered it to be. There's twig stuck to the curly green locks, complete with a single leaf.

"Should we get going?" He asks, seemingly innocent enough.

Toshinori frowns, confused. How could he not have heard the boy come out of the bathroom? He's seen firsthand at the beach how silent Midoriya could sometimes be, but surely he should have at the very least heard the door open?

How odd.

It definitely was strange.

Midoriya didn't seem to share his opinion, if the way he was looking expectantly at Toshinori had anything to say.

"Are you okay, All Might?" The boy questions with an unsure tilt of his head. His eyes spin three more times. It's dizzying to witness.

Toshinori swallows, torn between the strange nature of the boy's appearance and the knowledge that they should get moving, less they be late. "I am...fine? No worries, young Midoriya!" It's easy to force those strange thoughts away. They were insignificant. "We should get moving, let me.."

He leans down to pick his charge up, but the future-seer darts away before he even completes the movement. Like he knew it would come before Toshinori even started moving -a thought that in all likelihood, rang true.

Midoirya bows down slightly, smiling sheepishly at his obvious confusion. "Thank you, but I want to walk this time!"

"I don't think that's a good-"

He's not even done that Midoriya starts skipping down the hallway, shouting over his shoulders merrily:

"I'll live!"

Squinting, he looks back at the bathroom, unsure. Had he simply not heard Izuku come out? He turns his gaze to the young teenager, gaze shifting from that strange twig in his hair and to his bare feet.

The floors are pretty clean. There's no need for Toshinori to worry beyond the child getting a bit cold -but if that's what Izuku wanted, he couldn't really refuse the boy. He wasn't his parent. He was just looking out for him -though in reality, Toshinori quickly realizes, up until now it's more of the other way around.

It's not his place to question Midoriya Izuku's choices.

Resigned, Toshinori makes his way down the hall towards the observation room, the quiet, quick pitter-patter of Izuku's feet following after him.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Izuku feels bad for about one minute.

 _Kacchan must be rubbing off on me._

It's thirty seconds more than it should but as his feet hit the ground, he forces those thoughts away in favor of focusing on the now. Gritting his teeth, Izuku rolls with the landing just like he remembers Kacchan doing so the rare times he's allowed to see his best friend train.

Getting up is a hassle, his head feeling heavy and dizzy from the unexpected exercise after such long bed rest. Izuku doesn't let it deter him -it can't! Not now of all times! It was time for him to muster up all of his strength if he wanted this to succeed! So he shakes his head, slaps his cheeks a few times for added measure, stands up and rushes down the path leading towards the desired test grounds.

He's very lucky it's close by.

He turns around a few corners, pauses behind a tree as Kacchan was in one of the students groups ahead, then deviates between the hordes of anxious candidates to head towards one particular side of the path. There's a tree up ahead, it's long branches heavy with bright, lively green leafs that swayed in the light breeze.

If it wasn't for the mass congregation of anxious, stressed candidates rushing to their respective test grounds, this would almost be the perfect place to lay down and rest. But not today.

Especially with the tree's shade already occupied by someone.

A very unhappy and frowning someone.

One with messy, gravity-defying purple hair, the largest eye bags Izuku had ever seen save his own reflection and shoulders so tense their owner could give Kacchan a run for his money. He's unmistakable.

 _There you are._

As furtively as he can, he sneaks up behind the teenager, keeping his head low to duck under the low branches of the tree. He feels them brush against his hair but Izuku ignores it, choosing instead to silently plop down a foot or two away from his target, right up against the tree's trunk.

 _Good._ Shinsou's too busy staring off at the mass of candidates with a far away look to notice Izuku, and the noise the crowd made was more than enough to keep the sounds of his movements muffled. Which now left Izuku in the perfect position to move forward.

He takes a breath, thinks it through, and then puts on his best ditzy impression before chirping loudly enough for the insomniac to jump slightly:

"What's wrong with your eyes?"

The other boy's head snaps towards him as if he hadn't realized Izuku's presence until now. Izuku watches as Shinsou takes in his appearance and within a split second bites back:

"What's wrong with yours?"

Never let it be said that Izuku was a smart man.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Hitoshi's not sure what to expect.

His day is already crappy enough as it was. He'd done passable in the written portion and now his chances of ever passing and getting into the Heroics program had pretty much been shot to hell. His Quirk was already very specific -he could not control people unless they spoke to him, and neither could he maintain that control if they were hurt or startled in any way.

Robots though?

Robots were completely immune to Shinsou's Mind Control. He'd never put it to the test against an actual machine but if it didn't work on his adoptive mother's coffee machine the logical thought would be that it wouldn't work on Yuuei's machines either.

He was essentially now heading to the test grounds to be humiliated in front of a entire crowd of people.

Thus was the reason he was sitting under a tree, minutes away from fucking up his entire life on a stupid dream. A low sigh leaves him at that sordid thought.

What was even the point?

He knew he was going to fail. He'd never had the time to train physically too much between school work and bending over backwards to keep his foster family happy -there was no way he would be able to take down enough robots to qualify for the Hero Program. Especially Yuuei's Hero Program.

Grades wouldn't save him either; he'd done his best, Shinsou knew. And yet he was painfully aware that he was going up against a good two hundred candidates that statistically, were just as good if not better grade-wise and in all likelihood, had the Quirks to make it through. At the bare basic, enough to leave Shinsou in the dust.

Fuck.

 _What am I even doing-_

"What's wrong with your eyes?"

Hitoshi jumps.

He nearly ends up on his feet, head snapping towards the source of the too close, too loud, too fucking happy voice yipping right next to his ear. The first thing he sees is bright, spinning blue, and Shinsou's mouth runs before he fully registers the situation:

"What's wrong with yours?"

The eerie, too big, too bright _blue_ eyes spin, rotating in their sockets like little glimmering wheels full of stars. Not the whole eye spun, just the irises, and there was no pupils in sight. It was the oddest thing Shinsou had ever seen. Almost odder was the person whom those strange bug eyes belonged to.

Sitting at his side somehow without Shinsou ever noticing was a small, dark haired teenager. He's thin and short and has gangly limbs, alarmingly thin, a face full of freckles and the messiest bird's nest of a hair in the world. Not black hair -green, just like the tree over his head or the grass under Shinsou.

For all he knew, this kid had grown out the fucking ground. He most certainly had the body type for it.

 _Brat looks worse than me._

"You look terrible." Shinsou tells the summer sprite. It earns him a head tilt that belonged to a owl, not a human.

The stranger smiles. It's creepy in its gentleness.

"That's okay, I just woke up from a coma."

 _What._

This time it was Shinsou's turn to stare.

"You're strange." Shinsou ends up saying for hell, how could you reply to that ? "You should go then, I'm sure you shouldn't be up."

Blue Eyes bobs his head up and down in a nod. It makes his hair bounce. There's a small twig stuck to them. It only adds to the oddity of his appearance -he wasn't even wearing shoes, Shinsou noticed with a glance down. And his clothes looked anything but like the sport clothing most of the other candidates were wearing.

Was he even part of the exam or did he somehow find his way into Yuuei?

"Oh I'm fine. All Might thinks I'm still in the bathroom."

 _ **What the fuck.**_

Shinsou stands up and takes a step back from this other boy. He'd rather not contract whatever sort of madness this kid had. Sure, the boy looked like even Shinsou could put him to the ground, but with those glowing eyes of his there's no way he can guess what kind of Quirk he had. He preferred staying in one piece, thank you very much.

Especially since he needed to be on his best for the exam. As unlikely as it was that he would succeed.

"You look like crap."

"Thanks." Shinsou replied sarcastically, looking away. There's so many candidates here. All of them looked far stronger than Shinsou. More prepared. Better. Likely they all had combat Quirks or some way to deal with the machines. "I feel like it."

The green haired kid hums.

"Oh, well," He starts, walking to stand at Shinsou's side and looking at the stressed candidates making their way through the street towards the gate of the exam area. "You know what they say about hitting rock bottom. The only way left is up." He points out.

The sheer sappiness of his declaration has Shinsou chuckling bitterly.

"I'd need a ladder to get up." _Or a jet pack._ "We're going to fight robots. I'm fucked."

The strange kid bobs his head with a nod. "Your Quirk doesn't work on robots?"

Shinsou looks away.

"...no.

"Oh, what's your Quirk then?" The green haired creature asks, tilting his head. His eyes spin in their sockets -or rather, his irises do, along with whatever was supposed to be his pupils. How did that work, Shinsou had no idea. It was interesting to look at, but faintly disturbing.

Better than my Quirk, at any rate. Bitterness filled his mouth at the thought. Shinsou looks away, shoulders hunching as he bites out:

"Why would I tell you?"

"Why not?" Blue Eyes quips back, far too chipper for Hitoshi even when he was in a good mood -which he was not. Not today. At all.

The sheer simpleness of his response throws Shinsou for a loop. Gritting his teeth, he squints at the shorter teenager. "It's not a good Quirk."

"I had a neighbor who could turn his pee into different colors at will." The kid responds without even missing a beat.

Shinsou makes a face. He doesn't want to think about what such a Quirk would entail. Just the description made his stomach churn with disgust. How did the other boy even know how that Quirk wor -fuck, repress. Repress. Away from his brain that goes. _Far_ away.

"Mind control." He ends up spitting out. "My Quirk is mind control."

"Huh." The boy says and yeah, Shinsou's already waiting for the grimace. It hasn't happened yet, but he's optimistic it will soon. "So, mind control." Blue Eyes repeat, squinting in a way that looks oddly forced and exaggerated. His strange eyes and namesake of the nickname Shinsou mentally gave him make a couple more spins, faster now.

Was that the extent of his Quirk or could he do more?

"...have you thought about controlling the other candidates?"

Shinsou frowns.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you could get them to help you?"

His declaration gives Hitoshi some pause. It's not a thought that hadn't crossed Shinsou's mind. He was practical. He knew what his Quirk could do.

The points would go to those who destroyed the robots, not him. Even without his Quirk they would still have gone after the robots anyways.

"That would disqualify them." He chooses instead to say.

"Not if you don't use the same one constantly." Blue Eyes responds promptly. "-and I'm sure there's other parameters for the exam. Sheer combat power's not gonna do much if you can't deal with panicking civilians trapped in the middle of a villain fight."

Shinsou looks away, huffing.

"Sure."

"Hmm." Blue Eyes swings his arms a bit, the gesture so childish and out of place Hitoshi can't help but watch him from the corner of his eyes. "Just something to think about, Shinsou." He hums.

And with that, this strange odd kid turns around and steps into the crowd. About that moment a large boy with six arms walks past followed by a shorter kid with craggy, rough skin and a unsure expression, their tall figures blocking Hitoshi's view of Blue Eyes. By the time the tall boy passes with his companion, there's no sight of the green haired stranger.

He's lost to the crowd.

Gone like magic.

Or gone to dig his way back down to hell where he belongs.

There's a brief moment where Hitoshi wants to look for him, but then he hears Present Mic's voice coming from the speakers set up ahead and he pushes the thoughts of that strange kid away in favor of rushing towards his designated test ground.

It was only after he reached the gate of the test ground that he realized with alarm that he'd never given the boy his name.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

"Glad you could join us, Mr. Midoriya!"

Izuku feels his face go red as every single head in the room turns at the sound of All Might pushing the door open, their attention zeroing on him like hawks. All adults, all teachers. Pro-Hero teachers. It's one thing to see them through his visions, another to see them in person.

One is definitely more anxiety-inducing. He hopes it's not showing on his face.

"All Might, you're just in time." Principal Nedzu congratulates serenely from his seat at the very front of the room. He's plopped in the middle, before the mass wall of screens showing footage of the testing grounds. The light of the screens create a halo effect on his fur, turning it to thin, powdery silver instead of an immaculate white. "As are you, Mr. Midoriya."

There's a knowing look in those eyes of his.

Izuku looks away, diverting his attention to the rest of the room in a manner that he hopes looks casual. He'd only seen some of the teachers since his arrival, and more than a few give him a small wave or a nod at the sight of him, undeniably curious by his appearance but too busy preparing for the upcoming observation to give him attention.

It seemed like all of the Pro-Hero teachers Izuku had yet to know were here….

….and when All Might leads him to the front of the room towards one of the seats, Izuku suddenly realizes that this might have been a not good, bad, very embarrassing idea.

Namely, given the fact who he sits next to.

"Problem child."

Aizawa Shota looked relatively unchanged from their first meeting. The man's dark purple eye bags were brought even more in the semi-darkness of the room, and so was the dark red shade of his eyes. Eyes that were currently piercing and very much as unimpressed as their owner's voice as the man all but politely stared down at Izuku.

"Mr. Eraserhead." He can only swallow, resisting the urge to shrink back towards All Might who sat on the chair on the other side of him.

The underground Pro-Hero says nothing in response, his gaze unrelenting.

Suddenly he reaches out with one arm; Izuku freezes as the man's hand reaches for his face -no, his hair. All too quickly Omniscience gives him an uncomfortable but not unwarranted jab at the back of his eyeballs, one that warns him of what was about to happen before it happens.

Thus was the reason he was able to keep a straight face as the man's hand pulls back, showing his find.

A single twig, leaf attached.

Izuku all but squirms in his seat, stewing in the deafening silence. He can feel the weight of All Might's stare at the back of his head. It doesn't feel good. The Number One Hero's brain was probably working overtime trying to figure out the twig. Izuku feels like he's about to be squeezed in between two solid walls and it takes all of his will to keep his composure from cracking.

Aizawa narrows his eyes at him, holding the twig out for him to grab.

"I'm never doing that again." The man rumbles with finality.

Izuku takes the tiny tree branch and hesitantly tucks it out of sight.

"...right."

And that was that. Izuku's nowhere near enough of a fool to test the man. He ducks his head and turns his attention away as Nedzu calls for it.

He hopes the Pro-Hero found his embarrassment punishment enough.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 _ **"-go!"**_

Shinsou knew he was at a disadvantage, but the moment Present Mic declared the start of the trial was the moment this belief firmly settled into a fact. Two thirds of the candidates around him practically flew into the arena, using their Quirks to their advantage to launch themselves into the fray and take out the first row of machines.

For a moment he stands there, wide eyed, at the destruction going off all around him.

Gods, he was truly fucked.

No amount of last minute training in the past few months could save him from people who had been using their combat-oriented Quirks for years. As soon as Present Mic gives them the green light there's more than a few that are gone before Hitoshi can even goddamn blink. Most of all was a crackling, suspiciously too loud and far too happy blond who could create goddamn explosions with a flick of his wrists.

It's about that moment that part of Shinsou mentally checks out.

He's not going to win this.

Still, he runs into the arena. He dodges other contestants and scrambles around machines far bigger and heavier than himself. Any time he tries to get close to one of the machines, there's already someone on them. And the other kids are tearing through them pretty fast; there's quite a few lost souls like Hitoshi though. He spots them wandering in between the more skilled students, weakly attempting to take scraps from those who were nearly mindlessly tearing through the machines -like the crazy blonde.

That one seemed very happy about how things were going so far. He shot from machine to machine like he had a vindictive grudge against all things mechanic, skillfully destroying every last one of them with terrifying accuracy. He was laughing too, the maniac.

If Hitoshi wanted to try and get at least some meager points, he couldn't stay here. The main streets of the arena were full of students.

He had to branch out.

Hitoshi runs through one of the nearby alleys, reaching the side streets around the edges of the arena. There's a scattered bunch of students here, much fewer than the center of the testing grounds and if he could just…

The screech of metal snaps his attention away from his panicking thoughts.

A small robot about a meter taller than him stood in his path, large arms raised as it cut off his run. It's main body was slender and it stood on one wheeled leg. On each of the thick metal guards on it's forearms was painted a bright white one. If it's not the shape that gives it away, it's the number.

A One Pointer.

Shinsou takes a step back as the machine approaches menacingly, red camera eye fixed on him.

It was...slow.

Slower than expected.

Kind of lanky, too. It's movements stalled. Not as quick as the Two or Three Pointers Shinsou remembered seeing. Of course it wasn't -it was weak. They're not supposed to be super dangerous. And this machine -it was at the bottom of the barrel.

That didn't mean he could do much against it.

Shinsou dodges as it rolls forward, the slow swipe of it's arm telegraphed a arm away, likely purposely. His eyes run over the frame of the machine, spotting the gap around the flexible long neck where cables were peaking through. That had to be the weak point. It was so glaringly so.

Now how will he stick his hand in there without getting it crushed by a few tons of metal?

That Shinsou did not know.

 _Think, think!_ He screams mentally as it comes after him again, an attack he ducks under easily. _What can I do?_

Physically he was much lighter and fragile than this thing, as clumsy as it was. He couldn't just jump on it and get close, he didn't have a combat Quirk. There was nothing he could do without getting injured.

Gritting his teeth, Hitoshi watches as the few students around him take down their own machines. Fuck, if he could just get a bit of-

Wait.

 _'Why would I do that?'_

 _'Because you could get them to help you?'_

Suddenly, Shinsou knows _exactly_ what to do.

It doesn't take him long looking around to find another candidate.

"Hey! You there!" He yells at them and the girl turns to him, irritated. Her red head bounced with the gesture.

"Oi, can't you see I'm bus-"

Hitoshi activates Mind Control and whoops, there goes the blank faced look. Silently apologizing to the poor girl, he points at his One Pointer and yells:

"Damage that robot, but don't destroy it!"

Redhead Girl does so obediently. Her hands grow in size as she launches herself at it, two swipes of the limbs twisting the One Pointer's own arms in a way that warped the metal frame. The One Pointer wiggled it's arms, trying to move them but failing. It was helpless now. Defenseless.

Shinsou's eyes widened with the realization it had become nothing more than a walking free point. It...it's fucking cheap, but it's all Shinsou has at this moment.

He runs up to the robot just as he releases the girl from his Quirk. She stands there, confused, as Hitoshi plunges his hands into the machine's neck and rips out cables that detach far too easily. THe One Pointer twitches, whirring loudly, then collapses.

He did it.

Fucking cheaply, but he did it!

With an expression that might be a bit too maniac, he turns to the redhead girl. She seemed a bit dazed and confused, but fine.

"...eh…?"

"Thank you!" He yells at her before taking off, going after another One pointer. There's a student with a strange lazer Quirk running nearby and Shinsou wants to have a go at that.

 _Holy shit, I might be able to do this._

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

He's collected about twenty eight points when karma hits him in the face.

In his cockiness he'd edged closer and closer to the middle, taking control of stronger candidates just long enough to damage the machines for him to finish off. He doesn't reuse the candidates, sending them off to do their own thing because yeah, Hitoshi might be being a really cheap asshole right now, but this asshole had twenty eight points and he wasn't going to take more of their time as he already had.

But a few minutes into the fight, Shinsou fucks up.

Or rather, Yuuei decides to drop the metaphorical nuke.

He's just dismissed a girl with a strange plant Quirk and deactivated the robot she restrained for him with vines when the earth shudders and a nearby building starts crumbling, revealing a massive metal body. Shinsou freezes alongside every other student around him as the machine disguised as a building stands up, rising above the nearby buildings with ease.

The Zero Pointer.

As one, everyone starts fucking running. It's pandemonium. Candidates are pushing and shoving and Hitoshi gets an elbow digging into his side from a panicking girl as everyone scrambles to get out of the way of the very slow but massive machine coming their way. And fuck, while it was understandable, it didn't do Hitoshi any favors.

If he could duck back into the side streets, he could avoid the big machine. But wait, with the Zero Pointer running around everyone was going to do the same-

"Help!"

Hitoshi stumbles at the desperate cry, whirling around.

A girl he didn't know was laying on the ground several feet behind. She looked faintly sick, face pale and sweaty as she tried to heave herself up, stopped by a piece of rubble holding her legs and back down. Her brown hair was disheveled and all over the place; her eyes, glazed and panicked, wandered across the street and settled helplessly on Hitoshi.

"...I know...there's a test...but please help!" She whimpers as she pushes weakly against the sizable chunk of rubble. "I'm too tired...my Quirk's not…"

Her panicking eyes are pleading to Hitoshi. He glances at her, then around him spotting the way no one else stopped. A few looked back, but they kept running. Ahead, Crazy Blond was already going at it on some robots, ignoring the Zero Pointer and the girl entirely.

In a flash, Hitoshi realizes he's the only one who stopped.

The only one who was listening to her.

The only one who-

At that moment, _again_ , Shinsou knows exactly what to do.

Righting himself up, he turns around towards the fleeing students. Putting both hands on either side of his mouth, he hollers as loud as he can:

"Hey blondie!" A few heads turned towards him, questioning. Not the one he wanted, so he yells louder. "No, the spiky one with the overcompensating attitude!"

That does the trick.

Crazy Blonde's head snaps towards him so fast Hitoshi almost head the crack of his neck above the chaos. Those red eyes are almost glowing with rage and the expression the taller, stronger Quirk-user teenager makes is truly the most fearsome of them all. Teeth bared, hands popping tiny explosions as he stomped towards Shinsou promising some ungodly amount of pain.

"What did you call me you fucking sleep deprived bobble head-"

Shinsou doesn't allow the rabid kid to finish his sentence. He activates his Quirk and watches the way Crazy Blonde's eyes glaze over immediately. He shouldn't feel as satisfied as he was, but eh, Hitoshi knew it was for a good cause.

 _Gotcha, you sadistic little bastard._

With the equivalent of a nuclear bomb in hand, Hitoshi points towards the approaching robot and commands:

"Destroy the Zero Pointer!"

Crazy Blonde blasts off like a soda bottle popping open, the explosion resulting from his Quirk nearly sending Hitoshi on his ass. He's going towards the Zero Pointer and that's exactly what Hitoshi needs him to do.

With the machine occupied, Hitoshi rushes to the brown haired girl's help. She mumbled something to him as he forces the rubble up -thankfully it's not that big, good- and drags her up to her feet.

"T-thanks you." The girl mutters, face white and swaying. "I overdid it and...urgh."

"Don't throw up on me." Shinsou finds himself saying automatically.

The girl smiles weakly up at him. "I'll try." She wavers.

Good enough.

Hitoshi quickly looks around, searching for a back alley that would take them out of the center of the arena. There's none nearby, and instead he finds that the girl is not the only one who got caught in the Zero Pointer's destruction. Hitoshi winces as he spots a few other candidates limping away, or struggling to stand.

Fuck.

Well, he'd already helped someone, he didn't need-

 _'...I'm sure there's other parameters for the exam. Sheer combat power's not gonna do much if you can't deal with panicking civilians trapped in the middle of a villain fight.'_

...wait.

Don't tell him. That couldn't be true, could it?

 _I'm being crazy. That weird kid couldn't be right about that, could he?_

A candidate runs past them as Hitoshi frantically wonders if he had hallucinated that encounter with the strange blue eyed kid. This guy is tall, with glasses and a form fitting tracksuit. He's speeding away and dodging ruble and slower candidates alike and the sight of it makes Hitoshi snap and bark out:

"Hey, you could at least help us!"

Glasses skids to a stop ahead, frowning at him. "They're going to be fine, the staff is watching this is just a test-"

For a moment Shinsou thinks about using his Quirk, but he ultimately dismisses it.

"Don't give a shit!" Shinsou snaps back, irritated as he heaves the girl's arm over his shoulder and helps her up. She stumbles, face green. A tiny part of Hitoshi fucking prays she won't hurl on him because that's the last thing he needs today. Irritated, he looks at Glasses and tosses this out flatly. "I'm sorry, I didn't know doing the right fucking thing had special parameters!"

That seemed to ignite something in Glasses, for he goes over one of the fallen candidates and helps them up. Great. That's taken care of.

Loud laughter and explosions draws his attention behind as he drags the girl away. Crazy Blondie was jumping all over the Zero Pointer like a particularly angry tick, explosions going off at the robot's joints. One of its arms was tilted, fallen at it's side and with the way things were going, it's neck was next.

He's not sure the blond was even under his control anymore. He probably was. He seems very intent on destroying the Zero Pointer pointer and for Shinsou that's exactly what he needed.

Brown Hair Girl lags at his side and he has to readjust his grip, frowning. Part of him wants to drop her but another knows that that is fucked. Besides, if Blue Eyes was right then this might be what he needs to do.

Or maybe it was just the right thing to do. Fuck, Hitoshi doesn't know anymore. Maybe he's just gone crazy. He'd already walked into the test ground knowing that he'll likely fail. With how things were fairing he'd likely at most make it into the General Education course.

But...

If he got the girl to safety maybe he could get some extra points on the side…?

Just as Shinsou starts gathering that hope again a loud siren rings out, marking the end of the test blares out.

 _Fuck._

Brown Hair Girl promptly throws up at his feet. And goes unconscious, sagging in his grip and nearly taking him with her. It takes all of his self control to not drop her in her own vomit.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Snipe's unsure of what was going on.

The Sybil was sitting next to All Might, legs crossed under him and hands on his lap; avidly staring at the multiple screens with wide, glowing eyes that felt dizzying to just look at. There's a few moments where Snipe even sees the iris and pupils spin like little wheels.

It's hard to associate what he knew of the Sybil to the tiny _child_ sitting not too far away from him.

He knew who the Sybil was. Of course. Any hero worth their salt knew who the Sybil was, or at least caught the rumors. The Sybil's warnings were a blessing when it came to natural disasters and the occasional villain attack. Snipe met the child before today too, though it was when he sneaked a peak at the unconscious teenager. What luck it was the day Nedzu was meant to introduce him officially to the staff that the little _incident_ occurred.

Even knowing what he looked like and what he could do, however…

...the kid had a twig stuck to his hair, for god's sake. Snipe's not sure how _that_ added to the boy exactly, but the way he reacted to Aizawa handing it to him certainly pointed to something. The addition of All Might staring maybe a bit too hard at the kid like he was trying to figure something out only added to the strange scene.

Part of him wants to investigate, or at least sit back and watch the events unfold, but the screech of Hizashi's voice through the speakers marking the start of the test drags his attention away.

Snipe watches the screens carefully, tracking the candidates and noting down those who looked promising. This year's lot was a bit bigger than usual, no doubt because of All Might coming to teach. There's a few interesting combat Quirks, like the oddly cheerful blonde with the explosion power. Snipe's certain he's not the only one noting that down.

One oddity was another boy in the same testing ground. At first, there was little surprising about the purple haired boy on screen. He looked like those children who went in and realized quickly enough that he would be no match for the test robots.

But then he started using his Quirk.

Some form of mind control, if the way he commanded other candidates had anything to say. He would order them to damage the machines then he would finish them off quickly. At first Snipe was alarmed -what would happen if he just dragged around the candidates and cost them their own time for points?- but it quickly became clear that the boy was realizing that, for he only used the candidates once and then moved on to his next robot and next target quickly, leaving his victims to continue their own tests, although a bit confused.

"That's an interesting tactic." Nemuri murmurs behind him. Snipe has to agree.

"He's being very creative." Nedzu acknowledges at the front of the room. "He's not wasting much of the other candidates' time. That's good."

"He's making due with what he has." The Sybil suddenly pipes up, voice soft and calm. There's an undertone of pleased happiness that has Snipe tearing his gaze away to look at the child.

Midoriya was smiling. It was a small, innocent smile -but there was an underlying darkness in that little grin, something knowing and sly that had the back of Sniper's hair at the back of his neck rising.

"Number 85. Shinsou Hitoshi." Nedzu interjects, looking through his phone and undoubtedly at the candidate application list. "His Quirk is Mind Control, initiated by responding to him."

"Fascinating." All Might's voice is loud in the quietness of the chamber. "He's being very considerate of his comrades, too! If he keeps up, he'll be well on his way of making it through the test."

"We'll see." Aizawa rumbles on the other side of the Sybil, arms crossed. He's interested, Snipe can tell, but skeptical. Typical Shota. "He needs more than just a powerful Quirk to graduate. Ie he just makes everyone do the work for him, he's useless."

"Maybe." The Sybil acknowledges, nodding. "Keep watching though, I'm sure he has potential."

"Potential is often squandered." Aizawa replies with quickfire skill.

"Well, good thing he's _trying_. Goodness knows if there's ever a flawless candidate." The Sybil shrugs, nonchalant. "Just wait, I'm sure he'll impress you."

Snipe tries hard to not frown. That wasn't….strangely specific at all.

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Izuku knew he was kind of shoving a foot in his mouth but hey, at least this time it was willingly!

Eraserhead looks very much suspicious about his declaration, and that was scary. Already the man was starting to realize something was off. Why did Izuku not notice a tree twig in his hair when he had an all-seeing Quirk was beyond him. Oversharing when he didn't want it to, useless when he needed it.

Joy.

But, he'd done it. He's most certain he's done it -Omniscience presses against the back of his head, excited with the new information and Izuku knows right there and then he succeeded.

Shinsou was getting in.

The future was already beginning to solidify. Cementing itself into something unyielding the more and more Shinsou ran around using other candidates and sending them off as soon as he was done. And when the Zero Pointer showed up, he's quick to put it to use again.

Part of him feels bad about Kacchan getting used like that, but his best friend already had all the points to get his first place. A little padding by destroying the Zero Pointer wouldn't be that damaging. Kacchan lived for bragging rights, after all.

Further adding to that is the way Kacchan kept at the Zero Pointer even after he snapped out of Shinsou's control, the knockback of his explosions causing enough startle to free him of the Quirk.

...he could tone down the laughing, though.

 _Never change, Kacchan._

Izuku has to hold back a smile as everything plays out close to what he was aiming for. Uraraka gets saved by Shinsou, Kacchan gets his prize and all three of them were now locked in for the Hero Program. The teachers around him hadn't decided yet, of course, but the way Omniscience was buzzing something fierce within his eye sockets informed him of this certainty.

Things were looking up.

Discreetly, Izuku reached up and traced the curve of his right cheekbone. Finger trailing over his lower eyelid, he can't help but let his mind wander to older memories as his eyes drank in the sight of Shinsou attempting to hold a sickly Uraraka Ochako up whilst keeping her at arm's length from himself.

 _Maybe the future I seek will happen after all._

* * *

 **Bakugo: You used me! Like a cheap tool!**

 **Izuku: Actually that was my idea.**

 **Bakugo: ...**

 **Bakugo: ...**

 **Izuku: A-actually on second thought I said noth-**

 **This was fun to write lol. I'm not saying Izuku experiences a bit of envy for everyone else that he tries to cover up, but he...kinda does. As powerful as his Quirk is, it's also a big ball and chain. He's human too, yo.**

 **Next Chapter:**

 **Yuuei opens its doors for its first semester. Toshinori has a very important question to ask Izuku.**


End file.
